Israel approves law allowing settlers to buy land in occupied West Bank

Israel’s Knesset Foreign Affairs and Defence Committee approved a bill on Tuesday that would allow Israelis to directly buy land in the occupied West Bank.

Human rights groups say the move represents a major shift in control and could pave the way for the effective annexation of large parts of the territory, turning private land ownership by settlers into a political tool to establish new facts on the ground.

The Knesset press office said, “The Foreign Affairs and Defence Committee, headed by Boaz Bismuth, approved the proposed law ‘Ending Discrimination’ in the purchase of properties in Judea and Samaria,” the biblical names for the West Bank. It added that “four Knesset members supported the bill with no opposition.”

The bill still needs three readings in the Knesset plenum before it becomes law. No date has yet been announced for the first reading.

According to the bill, the new law “repeals the Jordanian law on renting and selling property to foreigners,” which has been in effect in the West Bank since 1953 and has prevented non-Jordanians, non-Palestinians, and non-Arabs from owning land.