Israel's Supreme Court has frozen implementation of a law legalising dozens of Jewish settlements built on private Palestinian land, which the UN labelled a "thick red line".
The decision was condemned by rightwing Israeli politicians who accused the judiciary of overruling the will of Israel's parliament.
Court documents seen by AFP Friday show that Judge Neal Hendel issued Thursday an open-ended restraining order suspending a bill passed by parliament that would retroactively legalise a number of outposts across the occupied West Bank.
The decision was in response to a petition brought by 17 Palestinian local councils on whose land the settlements are built.
Israeli and Palestinian rights groups were also parties to the petition.
Hendel wrote in his decision that Attorney General Avichai Mandelblit had asked him to grant the order.
It did not specify a time limit but demanded that Israel's parliament, the Knesset, deliver its response by September 10 and that Mandelblit submit an opinion by October 16.
The act, known as the "legalisation law", was passed in February and brought immediate condemnation from around the world.
International law considers all settlements to be illegal, but Israel distinguishes between those it sanctions and those it does not -- so-called outposts.
Mandelblit himself warned the government the law could be unconstitutional and risked exposing Israel to international prosecution for war crimes.
UN envoy for the Middle East peace process Nickolay Mladenov said following the February Knesset vote the bill set a "very dangerous precedent."
"This is the first time the Israeli Knesset legislates in the occupied Palestinian lands and particularly on property issues," he told AFP at the time.
"That crosses a very thick red line."
- Rightwing condemnation -
Rightwing parliamentarians criticised the court decision, saying it undermined the sovereignty of Israel's parliament.
"This is a dangerous intervention by the court against Knesset legislation," MP Bezalel Smotrich of the far right Jewish Home party, which is part of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's coalition government, told The Jerusalem Post newspaper.
"Time after time the judiciary tramples on the decisions of one governmental authority or another. This story must stop."
Mandelblit had suggested the bill would be likely to be struck down by the courts from when it was first proposed.
The act allows Israel to appropriate Palestinian private land on which settlers built without knowing it was private property or because the state allowed them to do so.
Palestinian landowners whose property was taken for settlers would be compensated with cash or given alternative plots.
Palestinians said the law was a means to "legalise theft" and France called it a "new attack on the two-state solution."
Some members of Netanyahu's right-wing government advocate the annexation of much of the West Bank, a move that would end any hope of an independent Palestinian state.
Mladenov said that the "legalisation law" could be a prelude to that.
"It opens the potential for the full annexation of the West Bank and therefore undermines substantially the two-state solution," he said after its passing.
Source: AFP
GMT 12:28 2018 Friday ,31 August
Algeria, reaffirm support to Sahrawi and Palestinian peoplesGMT 11:54 2018 Friday ,31 August
Second mine explodes in Mghilla 'Four soldiers wounded'GMT 11:30 2018 Friday ,31 August
UNSMIL condemns escalation of Violence in Great Tripoli areaGMT 11:15 2018 Friday ,31 August
Morocco, U.S Committed to Fighting Terrorism 'US Official'GMT 16:27 2018 Thursday ,30 August
PPS Considers Withdrawing from Ruling Coalition amid Tension with PJDGMT 15:34 2018 Thursday ,30 August
3 Bunkers, 4 homemade bombs discovered, destroyed in SkikdaGMT 15:10 2018 Thursday ,30 August
AU's Decision to Support UN-led Process, 'Big Win" for MoroccoGMT 12:47 2018 Thursday ,30 August
Cuba backed Polisario by providing military aid to AlgeriaMaintained and developed by Arabs Today Group SAL.
All rights reserved to Arab Today Media Group 2021 ©
Maintained and developed by Arabs Today Group SAL.
All rights reserved to Arab Today Media Group 2021 ©
Send your comments
Your comment as a visitor