Months after felling coalition, settler law extension cruises through Knesset

Several opposition parties back the measure; ‘We are in opposition to the government, not the state and its essential interests’ says Gideon Sa’ar

By TOI STAFF     Today, 7:56 am  

A routine measure extending emergency regulations for Israeli citizens in the West Bank flew through the Knesset on first reading early Tuesday, some six months after it became a major legislative battleground that helped bring down the previous government.<

The bill renews regulations that allow the state to impose criminal law and certain key civil laws — such as income tax and health insurance — to Israelis living in the West Bank. Originally enacted in the aftermath of the 1967 Six Day War, the law, which was last extended in 2017, remains an “emergency measure” that must be renewed every five years.

However, in June, the already tottering coalition found itself unable to rally support for a bill renewing the measure again from within its camp, which included the Islamist Ra’am party and left-wing Meretz.

Opposition parties, most of whom are now part of the governing coalition, also refused to back the measure, despite aligning with it ideologically, as a means of piling pressure on the government.

Shortly after midnight on Tuesday, the measure passed the Knesset on its first reading with support from both sides of the aisle, including members of opposition parties Yesh Atid and Yisrael Beytenu.

Ahead of the vote, National Unity leader Benny Gantz said his opposition party would back the measure, which had been championed last year by then-justice minister Gideon Sa’ar.

“What happened during the last administration was wrong on the part of the opposition and killing the law was against national interests,” said Sa’ar, now a senior National Unity MK.

“We are in opposition to the government, not the state and its essential interests,” he added, according to Walla news.

In June, Sa’ar warned that if the Knesset did not vote to approve the bill, it would “turn [settlers] into people without standing.” He claimed that without it, the school year would be threatened, drivers’ licenses won’t be issued, identity numbers could not be assigned, and the West Bank could turn into a “sanctuary” for criminals.

At the time, Likud MK Yoav Kisch said the measure would be approved once his party retook power, which it did late last month. “We can’t leave 500,000 people without law and without order,” he said then.

The measure was automatically extended when the government disbanded in June.

The Labor party, which had backed the bill while in the government last year, announced Monday that it would no longer vote for the regulations, which it called “annexation measures that are in opposition to Zionism.”

It said that policy goals of the new hardline government raised doubts about how temporary the regulations were. Though Israel has not annexed the West Bank, the measure ensures that settlers living there are treated as though they live in Israel in most matters, without extending those same legal arrangements to Palestinians.

“The party is staunchly opposed to steps that will harm Israeli security and lead us to a binational state as per the vision of [Religious Zionism head Bezalel] Smotrich and his partners,” the party said in a statement, according to Ynet news.

The measure was voted on hours after the Knesset’s House Committee approved a request by the government to expedite the bill and send it to the full plenum. It must pass two additional readings before becoming law.