Coyote, et al,
I'm having a very hard time finding was law was actually passed (the text).
Wow. Unbelievable. Outright and unabashed theft of private property.
(QUESTION)
What is the actual impact and result of this new law?
Does anyone actually know what the intent is for this action?
Most Respectfully,
R
No, it wasn't passed yet - I think that's in the OP. They're attempting to try to pass it again thinking that with an anti-Palestinian administration in the US it might incur less criticism. That's my take on it. But I think, as Susha pointed out - it could well be challenged in the courts should they do it.
In my opinion - the intent is to legalize - within Israel proper - the status of these illegal outposts. The international community regards all settlements as illegal but Israel recognizes some as legal, and others as illegal under Israeli law and those are mainly the so-called "outposts". This would recognize all of them as legal within Israel's system. My opinion also (and this is more tenous) is there is an intent here to legitimize what in some of the cases IS theft and weaken the ability of those Palestinians to regain their property. That's my read on it anyway.
You are wrong on all counts. First, this bill has nothing to do with an "antI Palestinian administration in the US," it is being pushed now to address a court order to demolish Amona by the end of the year.
Second, there is no private property involved in the sense the term would be used in the US or Europe. Britain and then Israel adopted Ottoman land laws which state land that is continuously cultivated by a village will be regarded as the property of the village as long as the cultivation continues, but if it stops being cultivated it becomes state land. The Israelis claim the land was not being cultivated at the time Amona was built and the Arabs from three nearby villages claim they were cultivating it at that time and were chased off the land by the Israelis. There is no hard evidence to support either side.
About ten years ago, the Court ordered the demolition of the community on the basis of an informal survey of Arab claims of land ownership ordered by the MoD soon after the second intifada, but after years of litigation, the Court decided this document was not a sufficient basis for a decision and ordered the police to investigate the issue. The police reported that they could find no hard evidence to support either side but that they found the Arab villagers more credible than the Israelis.
One might think that since no Arabs were displaced from their homes to build Amona and their only loss is the income from this land, about the size of a football field, a more just decision would have been to compensate the Arabs for the loss of income rather than evict 30 families from their homes to make room for a few goats to graze, but while the Israeli government had provided money and encouragement for the construction of the community, for political and diplomatic reasons it had never gotten around to authorizing it, Amona had no legal standing and the court ruled in favor of the goats. The bill seeks to authorize the community to give it legal standing before the court so that the Court will change its ruling and order fair compensation to the Arabs who claim to have cultivated the land for their loss of income rather than displace 30 families to make way for a few goats to graze there.
The PM and AG are opposed to the bill because they worry it may produce diplomatic difficulties for them and left wing politicians are screaming nonsense about land theft because Israelis who live in Judea and Samaria consistently vote for right wing parties.
