American Herald Tribune|Tim King: The political boldness of Donald Trump's presidency is not lost on Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. As Trump fails to enact a travel ban affecting people from seven Muslim majority countries, Benjamin Netanyahu's government enacts the "Regularization Law", a new land grab law that further erodes the ownership rights of Palestinians.

This new law will allow Israel to retroactively expropriate land that is privately owned by Palestinians in West Bank Area C, providing the land exists where Israeli settlements or outposts have been built. These settlements are all illegal under international law. The law would "regulate" somewhere between 2,000 and 4,000 homes in 16 different settlements. all built on Palestinian-owned lands. The Regularization Law was passed in the Knesset on 06 February 2017 by a vote of 60 to 52. Critics have dubbed the new law the "Expropriation Law".

Background

Until the massive influx of Jews into Palestine following the Holocaust, Palestinian land was owned by Palestinians, just like land in America is owned by Americans. Jews lived in Palestine but they too were Palestinians. It was during the massive Post WWII exodus of Jews from Europe, that Jews began taking over entire Palestinian villages and in many cases, murdering the Palestinian land owners in order to do so.

This continued for years in the late 1940's and 1950's, with Jewish terrorist cells like the Irgun and Stern Gang ruthlessly killing Palestinian villagers, many of whom began to flee out of fear for their own lives. Literally, hundreds of Palestinian villages were taken this way and to this day, are possessed by Israelis.


Israel was created in 1948, and land grabs have continued during its entire existence. Then came the Six Day War in 1967, which was an unprovoked attack by Israel upon its neighbors. Israel used this victory to seize millions of acres of Palestinian land. With Palestine all but wiped from the map in recent years, new Israeli strategies were employed to build colonies or settlements, upon the small remaining amount of Palestinian land.

This new uber controversial law from Israel is the latest move to acquire privately owned Palestinian land. Germany's Foreign Ministry spokesperson said in relation to this new law, "Our trust in the Israeli government's commitment to the two-state solution has been fundamentally shaken," and it isn't every day that Germany speaks out in this way. Germany's Foreign Ministry spokesperson added, "Many in Germany who stand by Israel and feel great commitment toward it find themselves deeply disappointed by this move,"

Israel's Attorney General Disagrees with Regularization Law

The law was brought before Israel's Supreme Court on 08 February 2017 by 17 Palestinian local governments and three human rights organizations. The New Indian Express wrote, "The law has sparked an outpouring of condemnation from around the world since it was passed in the Israeli parliament late Monday, although the United States has remained tight-lipped."

YNet reports that the Attorney General of Israel Avichai Mandelblit, says he will not defend the law on behalf of the government at the Supreme Court because he deems it unconstitutional, and that it may lead to a suit against Israel at the International Criminal Court. In response, Israeli Justice Minister Ayelet Shaked says that the State will hire a private attorney for legal representation. Shaked's party, The Jewish Home, is behind the controversial legislation.

Netanyahu shares another similarity with Trump, that is opposition from within his own government. Israel's Attorney General, Avichai Mendelblit, has opposed the law from the beginning and his opposition continues. Mendelblit has in reality, been a stalwart supporter of Israeli Zionist expansion politics from the beginning. He participated in numerous battles and campaigns as an officer in the Israeli Defence Forces (IDF) and stood up for extremely controversial matters like the IDF's use of cluster bombs during Israel's second war in Lebanon, claiming their use was a matter of legitimate warfare when the world as a whole disagrees. In December 2007, he declared that the IDF's use of cluster bombs during the Second Lebanon War complied with international humanitarian law.

Then, after the Goldstone Report condemned the horrific Israeli attacks in Gaza in 2008/09 called "Operation Cast Lead" during which hundreds and hundreds of children and non-combatants were killed by the IDF, and dozens of hospitals and schools specifically targeted, it was Mendelblit who went into defensive mode, claiming at the time "We ourselves set up investigations into 140 complaints. It is when you read these other reports and complaints that you realize how truly vicious the Goldstone report is. He made it look like we set out to go after the economic infrastructure and civilians, that it was intentional. It�s a vicious lie."

In truth, it was Mendelblit and Netanyahu who lied. Everything in the Goldstone Report was true, however unflattering to Israel it was. Operation Cast Lead was simply a massive military attack on a civilian population that left well over a thousand Palestinians dead. Israel had almost no losses. When hardcore war proponents like Mendelblit who vehemently supports these operations questions the Israeli government, it is noteworthy.

The Regularization Law is another attack on a civilian population.

The right-wing Trump supporting Breitbart News, writes that "Israel's Settlement Regulation Law Doesn't Violate Norms". The news agency claims that several leading scholars claim that the "'Regulation Law' does not contradict Israeli law, and precedents both inside and outside Israel can be invoked to justify its passage within the context of international law."