Israel pushes for 'annexation' of West Bank

Israel is pushing for a plan to apply its own law in the illegal settlements in the West Bank in a move condemned by critics as “creeping annexation” of the occupied Palestinian lands.

Ayelet Shaked, the Israeli minister of judiciary affairs, said she is working on a plan with the attorney general to implement Israeli law in the occupied West Bank.

A committee to work on the plan would be set up to decide if Israeli law could immediately be applied to the settlements through orders by the military commander of the region.

The military advocate general urged the attorney general in the previous Knesset to develop clear regulations for cases when Israeli law should be implemented in the occupied West Bank via the military commander’s order.

“We took the military advocate general’s letter, and it should be implemented,” the minister said. “There will be a team that takes the laws and examines each on a case-by-case basis.”

“There should be an equalizing of conditions. Basic Laws do not apply” in the West Bank,” Shaked said at a conference.

“My goal is that within a year there will be equal conditions either through military order or legislation.”

Two controversial bills passed the first reading at the Knesset three months ago and entered the next stage. The bills demand the application of tax advantages to owning homes or earnings obtained in the illegal settlements.

Member of Knesset Merav Michaeli condemned the approval of the bills at the time, saying, “While the world boycotts the settlements and their products, Israel encourages investments in the settlements.”

She also accused Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of “imposing a creeping annexation in the territories. It will take years to fix the damage that Netanyahu is doing to Israel and the world.”

Over half a million Israelis live in more than 230 illegal settlements built since the 1967 Israeli occupation of the Palestinian territories of the West Bank including East al-Quds (Jerusalem).

All Israeli settlements are illegal under international law.

19 arrests in West Bank

The development comes amid rising tensions between Israeli forces and Palestinians in the occupied tensions.

Palestine’s Safa news agency said Israeli forces arrested 19 Palestinian after they raided their home in several areas across the occupied West Bank at dawn on Tuesday.

Israel’s channel 7 said the regime’s forces arrested three of the Palestinians, including an activist of Hamas resistance movement, in the cities of near Tulkarm, Saida and Nablus.

The Israeli military claimed the arrests were made due to security reasons, adding they will be referred for investigation.

More punitive demolitions

Also on Tuesday, Israeli forces demolished the home of the Palestinian man, Zeid Amr, for his alleged involvement in a deadly shooting attack against an Israeli settler couple near Itamar settlement in the occupied West Bank in October 2015.

Israeli demolishes homes belonging to the families of Palestinians, who allegedly attack Israelis, in a move slammed by the UN as an internationally-banned form of collective punishment.

Tensions have heightened in the occupied territories since August 2015, when Israel imposed restrictions on the entry of Palestinian worshipers into the al-Aqsa Mosque compound in East al-Quds.

Since the onset of the Palestinian uprising, the Israeli regime has arrested 2,441 Palestinians, Israel’s channel 7 TV said, adding most of them will be tried in military courts.

The report claimed that the Palestinians conducted 282 operations against Israelis, including 166 stabbing attacks, 82 gun attacks, 29 car-ramming attacks and 5 Molotov cocktail attacks, adding 34 Israelis have been killed in the Palestinian operations.

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