Tuesday, 7 February 2017

Israel passes controversial law on West Bank settlements



   Israel has passed a controversial law retroactively legalising 3,800 settler homes built on private Palestinian land in the occupied West Bank.

  Under the law the original Palestinian landowners will be financially compensated or given alternative land.
  US President Donald Trump has taken a softer stance on Israeli settlement activity than his predecessor, Barack Obama.
  The new law comes amid an escalation in settlement activity in recent weeks.
  Emboldened by what it sees as a more sympathetic US administration, Israel has advanced plans for thousands of new homes in settlements.
  More than 600,000 Jews live in about 140 settlements built since Israel's 1967 occupation of the West Bank and East Jerusalem.
  Palestinians say the new legislation negates peace and their chances of creating a state.
  However, Israel's attorney general has said the law is unconstitutional and that he will not defend it in the Supreme Court.

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