The Israeli Knesset approved late Monday the controversial settlement bill which would recognize West Bank settlement outposts built on Palestinian private lands.
The bill passing with 60 voting in favor and 49 against would see thousands of dunums of privately-owned Palestinian land seized and dozens of illegal Israeli outposts in the occupied West Bank retroactively legalized.
However the bill would not be applicable to Amona.
A clause demanding that the symbolic Amona outpost be retroactively legalized was removed from the bill according to Israeli media sources.
Following the vote the bill will be brought to a first reading in the Knesset on Tuesday.
The revised version allows the “state of Israel” to give settlers “usage rights” to privately-owned Palestinian land but not ownership rights while Palestinians who can prove ownership of land would receive “compensation” according to the Hebrew daily Haaretz.
UN Special Coordinator for the Middle East Peace Process Nickolay Mladenov reacted immediately to the passage of the bill saying that the bill will annex parts of the West Bank to Israel.
Such steps would undermine any chance for peace he added.
Human rights groups and international leaders have strongly condemned Israel’s settlement construction saying it is a strategic maneuver to prevent the establishment of a contiguous independent Palestinian state by changing the facts on the ground.
