Israel News for November 17, 2016
Settlement Building
Defense Minister Avigdor Lieberman has expressed his belief that Israel must coordinate its settlement building activities with the US administration. While he is optimistic about a new Trump administration, he remains cautious and advises waiting to see what the new president does when he actually takes office. He claims that failing to coordinate with the US has led to failures in the settlement building movement. He said, “We need to wait for the new administration and to establish policies with them together. We have to make agreements with them. No one is in our pockets.”
Lieberman said yesterday that he has received messages from members of Trump’s close circle of advisors urging Israel to only build within existing settlement blocks and refrain from building new settlements at the present time. Settlement leaders as well as Right Wing ministers, including Naftali Bennet and Tzipi Hotovely, have attacked Lieberman’s position and have expressed extremely optimistic hopes that the new Trump administration will give Israel a free hand in West Bank and settlement related issues.
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Bill Passes
The legislation to retroactively legalize settlements built on privately owned Palestinian land, including Amona, passed its preliminary reading in the Knesset. Finance Minister Moshe Kulana, who had indicated that he would not support the bill because it went against the Supreme Courts recent ruling that ordered the evacuation of Amona, ended up supporting it after meeting with PM Netanyahu.
The bill would allow settlers to live on private Palestinian land while compensating its owners financially. Attorney General Avichai Mendelblit has repeatedly stated that he would not defend the bill against a challenged in the High Court, because it contradicts international law.
Opposition leader Isaac Herzog described the bill as the “Knesset’s bill of horror” and called on all Knesset members to oppose the bill, saying that “never before in the country’s history has the Knesset voted in total contradiction to the law of the land and international law.”
The bill must still pas two more readings and votes in the Knesset to become law. Education Minister Naftali Bennet, who is spearheading the bill, said, “Just as we succeeded in this vote, we will succeed in the future – with tenacity, with faith and in cooperation with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and the other parties in the nationalist camp.”
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Jerusalem Demolitions
Jerusalem Mayor Nir Barkat has reiterated his previous promise to demolish Arab homes in East Jerusalem that are built on privately owned Jewish land if the settlement of Amona is evacuated. The mayor initially revealed his intentions in a letter to the Attorney General after the Supreme Court ruled that the settlement could not exist on privately owned Palestinian land. The mayor explained that he would have no choice but to apply the court’s ruling to hundreds of Arab families living in homes built on private Jewish land. The city has already requested 14 demolition orders.
For further reading click here. http://www.haaretz.com/israel-news/1.753589
Obama Considering
A senior White House official has revealed that President Obama is considered the possibility of supporting a UN resolution against settlements or in favor of a Two-State solution. The official said Obama would inform President-elect Donald Trump before making any such move.
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