Israel: Parliament renews extension of criminal law to settlers living in the West Bank

Israeli President Isaac Herzog and Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu, surrounded by the government and in particular Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Justice Yariv Levin (2nd row, 2nd partly from the right), in Jerusalem on December 29, 2022. AFP - GIL COHEN-MAGEN

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In Israel, the new coalition in power, made up of right-wing, far-right and religious parties, votes its first bill.

A text thanks to which the Jewish settlers living in the Occupied Palestinian Territories remain under Israeli jurisdiction, unlike the Palestinians, under occupation and subject to a different regime.

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This law has been renewed every five years, almost automatically, since 1967 and the beginning of the Israeli occupation of the Palestinian Territories.

It allows the Jewish state to create two parallel regimes of law on the same territory.

First, the one reserved for Jewish settlers.

They are today nearly half a million living in the occupied West Bank.

Technically, they live outside the borders of their country.

But thanks to this tailor-made law, they are attached to Israeli law.

If a crime is committed in a settlement, the Israeli police take over the investigation.

If there is a need to go to court, the presumed culprit, if he is Israeli, is brought before a civil court.

The three million Palestinians in the West Bank are not subject to the same legislation.

Under occupation, they are under Israeli military jurisdiction.

The Palestinian Ministry of Foreign Affairs denounces a “ 

 ” law, leading in fact to “ 

 ” of the occupied West Bank.

Opposite, the Israeli authorities do not even hide it.

The Minister of Justice of the Hebrew State, who carried this bill, explains: “ 

Jewish settlements” in the West Bank, a term used to designate the colonies, illegal according to international law.

►Read again: Israel imposes retaliatory financial sanctions on the Palestinian Authority

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• Palestinian territories