Statement on the Settlement Regularization Bill

• Date: 2017-02-07

The Society of St. Yves – Catholic Center for Human Rights is gravely alarmed by the Israeli Knesset’s adoption of the settlement “Regularization Law” yesterday, set to retroactively legalize 4,000 settler homes built on privately owned Palestinian land in the occupied West Bank.

This attempt by Israel to legalize the illegal settelments is a total contempt of international law, under which all settlement in the occupied Palestinian territories are illegal and amount to a war crime. The passing of this law encourages further land theft by the settlers with total impunity, paves the way for the final annexation of the West Bank and is considered a unilateral announcement by Israel that the two-state solution and peace efforts are now dead.