As reported in Haaretz:
Israeli lawmakers on Monday evening passed 60-52 a contentious bill that would retroactively legalize the expropriation of privately owned Palestinian land, in a move Palestinians said could the kill chances of reaching a peace deal. [...]
Far-right lawmaker MK Bezalel Smotrich praised the bill's passage into law, saying it was a "historic day for the settlement movement and for Israel. Today Israel decreed that developing settlement in Judea and Samaria [the West Bank] is an Israeli interest. From here we move on to expanding Israeli sovereignty [on the West Bank] and continuing to build and develop settlements across the land." [...]
The bill would allow the state to declare private Palestinian land on which settlements or outposts were built, “in good faith or at the state’s instruction” as government property, and deny its owners the right to use or hold those lands until there is a diplomatic resolution of the status of the territories.
Heavily armed Israeli settlers now have a green-light to begin construction on any Palestinian persons’ property. The state will retroactively legalize their theft of the land and retroactively deem it to be “state land”. The settlers have effectively captured the state in Israel.
This is the first time the Knesset has sought to apply a law to area C, which is about 70% of the West Bank. This is could be construed as “expanding Israeli sovereignty” and effectively annexing the West Bank (which is what the settler-aligned parties have been agitating for). Palestinians are already restricted to about 30% of the West Bank, a series of disjoint enclaves with access controlled by Israeli checkpoints.
The vote was 60-52, with the center-left Zionist Union, the Joint List (Hadash/Communists and Arab parties) and the centrist Yesh Atid opposed. The ADL and AJC criticized the bill passed by the Knesset, uncharacteristic for both organizations which are known to defend Israeli policy on virtually all subjects.
The NYTimes reporting on the passage said:
The bill had been so contentious that the nation’s attorney general, who described it as unconstitutional and in contravention of international law, said he would not defend it in the high court, which seemed in any case likely to nullify it.
That is partly because the law applies to Palestinians and their property rights. Since Palestinians in the occupied West Bank are not Israeli citizens and cannot vote for candidates for Israel’s Parliament, or Knesset, critics of the legislation say it is inherently anti-democratic. Under the law, Palestinian landowners will be offered compensation for the long-term use of their property but will not be able to reclaim it.
As the NY Times notes, Palestinians in the West Bank have not had a say in the government that has ruled their lives for almost 50 years. The legal fiction of military rule under a temporary occupation has been maintained thus far, but with this bill the Knesset appears to have asserted its authority over the West Bank. That then leads to awkward questions about why Palestinians in the West Bank are not represented in the Knesset.
The seizure or destruction of property (unless militarily necessary) is a grave breach of the Geneva conventions to which Israel is a signatory. The transfer of a state’s own civilian population onto occupied territory is also a grave breach. The ICC has found both to be war crimes and individuals have been successfully prosecuted for both offenses.