The amendment could see the resettlement of Israelis in four outposts in the northern occupied West Bank that were evacuated in 2005.
The Israeli government has given the green light to an amendment that would allow Israelis to resettle four illegal settlements in the northern occupied West Bank that were evacuated in 2005.
The second and third reading of the legislation were approved Monday night in the Knesset, the Israeli parliament, with a majority of 31 votes in favor and 18 against.
The development could see Israelis resettle in the evacuated settlements of Homesh, Sa-Nur, Kadim and Ganim, all of which are located around the Palestinian cities of Jenin and Nablus.
While the government approved the amendment, the Israeli military has yet to issue a military order allowing Israelis to resettle in these areas.
Between 650,000 and 700,000 Israeli settlers live in hundreds of illegal Jewish-only settlements and outposts, most built wholly or in part on private Palestinian land, in occupied East Jerusalem and the West Bank.
In August 2005, the withdrawal plan implemented by then-Prime Minister Ariel Sharon saw Israel expel more than 9,000 settlers in 21 illegal settlements located in the besieged Gaza Strip and northern West Bank.
The new far-right Israeli government, which was sworn in late last year, has moved full steam ahead with legislation to legalize nine outposts and expand existing settlements.
Several senior figures in the government led by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu are hardline settlers pushing a more right-wing agenda, including Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich, who lives in Kedumim near Nablus, and National Security Minister Itamar. Ben-Gvir, who lives in Kiryat Arba near Hebron.
The evacuated settlement of Homesh, in particular, has been at the center of tensions between Palestinian and Israeli settlers, who have constantly tried to re-establish the site permanently.
While all Israeli settlements are considered illegal under international law, Homesh is also considered illegal under Israeli law, as the Supreme Court ruled that the land belonged to private Palestinian owners from the nearby town of Burqa.
Despite the evacuation of the outpost, the Israeli army maintains a military base on the site, and settlers are allowed to access it and operate a school there, while Palestinian landowners are prohibited from doing so.
A day before taking the oath, the new Israeli government declared that the advancement and development of settlements “in all parts of the land of Israel,” including the West Bank, is a national priority, in a covert admission that it had no intention of allowing the creation of a Palestinian state.
On Monday, Smotrich, who oversees the Israeli military corps in the West Bank in charge of settlement construction, denied that Palestinians existed.
On March 1, he said that the Palestinian town of Huwara, near Nablus “should be annihilated”days after Israeli settlers carried out what was described as a “pogrom”, in which dozens of Palestinian homes and hundreds of cars were burned down, while one Palestinian was killed and hundreds more injured.
