goralikus/istock/Thinkstock(JERUSALEM) — A bill to legalize Israeli settlements built on the privately-owned Palestinian land in the West Bank retroactively passed a ministerial committee on Sunday.
The bill would have to be approved by Parliament before it could become law, according to Israeli newspaper Haaretz. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, however, opposed its advancement. Israel’s attorney general warned that he would find it difficult to defend the legislation in his own country’s Supreme Court.
One illegal outpost, Amona, was ordered to be destroyed by December 25th by a lower court, prompting urgency on the part of Israel’s pro-settlement camp.
Israel’s expanded settlements have enraged Palestinians and been a source of tension with the Obama administration.
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