formalization law

Construction workers clear land for new caravans in the settlement of Ofra, West Bank, January 29, 2017. (Yaniv Nadav/Flash90)

The Israeli gov’t is arguing that annexation is good for Palestinians

In a High Court case over a law to legalize Israeli settlements built on stolen, privately owned Palestinian land, the attorney hired to represent the government (because the attorney general refused to do so) argues that Palestinians, and not just settlers, would actually benefit. Israel’s High Court of Justice heard arguments on Sunday against the…

By Orly Noy June 6, 2018

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu gives a statement to the press in front of construction in the Har Homa settlement in Jerusalem, March 16, 2015. (Yonatan Sindel/Flash90)

The endgame lurking behind Netanyahu’s new settlement policy

Netanyahu’s new settlement policy doesn’t just pave the way for massive construction in the West Bank — it also, with the blessing of a right-wing U.S. president, risks freezing Palestinians out of the diplomatic process entirely. By Mitchell Plitnick On March 30, the Israeli government announced that it had approved the first new settlement in…

By +972 Magazine April 13, 2017

Israeli soldiers stand in front of the West Bank settlement of Beitar Illit, which was partially built on expropriated land belonging to the Palestinian village of Wadi Fukin, West Bank, September 26, 2014. (Ahmad al-Bazz/Activestills.org)

Israel’s land theft law is just the tip of the settlement iceberg

Anyone who condemns Israel’s new law authorizing the theft of private Palestinian land, while forgetting the mass theft engendered by the settlement enterprise as a whole, is doing an injustice to the fight for equality in this land. The Knesset on Monday night passed the “formalization law” (also translated as the “normalization law”), which retroactively…

By Haggai Matar February 7, 2017

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Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu at an event honoring firefighters and first responders, Haifa, December 26, 2015. (Kobi Gideon/GPO CC 2.0)

When some are more equal than others before the law

The differing approaches to suspected law-breaking by Netanyahu and Palestinian MK Basel Ghattas expose just how selective the rule of law in Israel really is. Law is a deceptive concept. We like to take pride in being “law-abiding citizens,” and so tend to reject and condemn members of our community who have broken the law.…

By Orly Noy January 14, 2017

Israeli troops disperse Palestinian and Israeli activists who erected a protest ‘outpost’ in the Jordan Valley, West Bank, November 17, 2016. (Flash90)

Soldiers use force on non-violent protest against illegal West Bank outposts

Palestinian and Israeli activists protesting against settler outposts in the Jordan Valley are met with a forceful response from IDF soldiers. Dozens of Palestinian and Israeli activists gathered in the Jordan Valley, West Bank, on Thursday morning in order to protest the establishment of new illegal outposts in the area. The demonstrators, from joint Arab Jewish…

By Haggai Matar January 5, 2017

Residents of Bir Hadaj warm themselves around a fire after homes in the village were demolished. (Rami Younis)

How the Israeli Right easily manipulates Palestinians and the Left

Distracted by the ‘fire intifada’ that wasn’t and the progress of the ‘muezzin law,’ the Israeli Left and several Palestinian Knesset members failed to call out the other injustices of the last few weeks. It’s easy to condemn the declarations that the recent wave of fires across Israel brought from Israel’s igniter — sorry, inciter-in-chief Benjamin Netanyahu,…

By Rami Younis December 5, 2016