Knesset Passes Law Opponents Say Will Benefit Illegal West Bank Outposts
Image by Getty Images
Israel’s Knesset passed a controversial law that requires greater transparency from the World Zionist Organization’s Settlement Division, but which opponents claim will funnel money to illegal settlements in the West Bank.
The bill, sponsored by Jewish Home member Bezalel Smotrich, was approved by a vote of 53-48 and signed into law Thursday, the Times of Israel reported
The law recognizes the World Zionist Organization’s Settlement Division as a government arm and authorizes it to fund and assist rural Jewish communities in both Israel proper and the West Bank.
“Today, it was clarified that despite perceptions among Israel’s left, which rejects outright the idea of settlements, Zionism has won,” Smotrich said, according to the Times of Israel “During the struggle of the last few months, the forces in the Knesset that have tired of Zionism came together to bring down this law. Today, despite that, Zionism has won.”
In a Knesset discussion before the vote, Yair Lapid, said Jewish extremists, such as those seen in a recently released video celebrating the murder of Palestinians, were “born in the same outposts that this bill is trying to fund.”
Lapid said the law benefits “illegal outposts” and “all the places where the [Settlement] Division is not building but is trying to establish a political reality.”
Tzipi Livni, of the Zionist Union, said the bill “is designed to deceive America,”by “giving the Settlement Division authority but not responsibility,” according to the Jerusalem Post.
“I would accept this bill if one sentence was added – that everything that applies to the government also applies to the Settlement Division – but, of course, [the coalition] didn’t accept it.”
A message from our CEO & publisher Rachel Fishman Feddersen
I hope you appreciated this article. Before you move on, I wanted to ask you to support the Forward’s award-winning journalism during our High Holiday Monthly Donor Drive.
If you’ve turned to the Forward in the past 12 months to better understand the world around you, we hope you will support us with a gift now. Your support has a direct impact, giving us the resources we need to report from Israel and around the U.S., across college campuses, and wherever there is news of importance to American Jews.
Make a monthly or one-time gift and support Jewish journalism throughout 5785. The first six months of your monthly gift will be matched for twice the investment in independent Jewish journalism.
— Rachel Fishman Feddersen, Publisher and CEO
