The Minister of Finance, the settler and radical Bezalel Smotrich, together with the Minister of Defense, Israel Katz, reported that this is one of the measures approved at the Political and Security Cabinet of Benjamin Netanyahu’s government held this Sunday
The Israeli government approved this Sunday the annulment of a Jordanian law that prevents non-Arab people from buying land in the West Bank, a rule that traditionally made it difficult for Israeli settlers to acquire property in this Palestinian territory occupied by Israel.
The Minister of Finance, the settler and radical Bezalel Smotrich, together with the Minister of Defense, Israel Katz, reported that this is one of the measures approved at the Political and Security Cabinet of Benjamin Netanyahu’s government held this Sunday, according to several Israeli press outlets.
“We are deepening our roots throughout the land of Israel and burying the idea of a Palestinian state,” declared Smotrich.
The approval of the revocation by the government, which did not detail whether the measure applies automatically or whether it must be ratified by the Israeli Parliament, comes after a parliamentary committee voted in November last year on a bill to the same effect, which has not yet been discussed in plenary.
According to the Israeli newspaper “Haaretz”, Smotrich highlighted that the aforementioned Jordanian law, approved in 1953 when Jordan administered the West Bank, limited the purchase of private land by settlers, who needed to resort to companies registered with the Civil Administration, the body of the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) that governs civil affairs in the West Bank.
The repeal of the law is part of a battery of measures approved this Sunday by the Netanyahu government that seeks to expand Israeli competences in the West Bank areas under the administration of the Palestinian Authority, including in the civil field.
The West Bank has been divided since the 90s of the last century into three zones — A, B and C — and two of them (A and B, which represent around 40% of the territory) are supposedly civilly administered by the Palestinian Authority. Israel has security control of zone B (about 22%) and full control of zone C.
Therefore, the cabinet also approved the lifting of the confidentiality of cadastral records in the West Bank, which will allow buyers to identify owners and contact them directly.
Supervision powers were also approved “in all matters related to water violations, damage to archaeological sites and contaminating environmental risks”, according to Smotrich.
Furthermore, the cabinet approved the transfer of licensing and construction faculties in the Palestinian town of Hebron from the Palestinian municipality to the IDF Civil Administration.
And, according to Haaretz, it gave authorization for a new Israeli body to manage Rachel’s Tomb, in the municipality of Bethlehem.
*EFE
