HRWs: Israel's Passage of Regularization Bill Reflects

In response to the Israeli Knesset's passage of the 'Regularization' bill that allows Israel to retroactively appropriate privately owned Palestinian land for settlements undoes years of established Israeli law and, coming just weeks after the Security Council's unanimous passage of Resolution 2234 on the illegality of settlements, reflects Israel's manifest disregard of international law, Human Rights Watch said.

    The bill further entrenches the current reality in the West Bank of de facto permanent occupation where Israeli settlers and Palestinians living in the same territory are subject to 'separate and unequal' systems of laws, rules and services, Sarah Leah Whitson, executive director of the Middle East division of Human Rights Watch said in a statement Monday.

    "Israeli officials driving settlement policy should know that the Trump administration cannot shield them from the scrutiny of the International Criminal Court, where the prosecutor continues to examine unlawful Israeli settlement activity," she added.

    On Monday, Israel passes bill to seize private Palestinian lands for Jewish settlements.

Source: QNA