Coalition chair denies PM trying to bury outpost bill

A spokesman for coalition chair David Bitan tells The Times of Israel that there are no plans to bury a bill that would legalize construction of settlements on private Palestinian land in the West Bank, but declines to say when the bill will be brought for a vote or why it has been delayed.

Fearing repercussions from the US administration, a final vote on the so-called Regulation Bill, which would legalize some 4,000 housing units in the West Bank built on privately owned Palestinian land, had been shelved until President Obama leaves office on January 20, Bitan confirmed to The Times of Israel in December.

But the bill was put “back on the table” following the US’s failure to veto a UN Security Council resolution condemning Israeli settlements, The Times of Israel was told after the vote.

Bitan’s spokesman denies reports in Haaretz that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is now trying to prevent the bill from progressing altogether.

“I don’t know where these reports are coming from or who is saying it,” he says. “There are no such plans.”

A spokesman for Education Minister Naftali Bennett, whose Jewish Home party has originally proposed the bill, declined to comment on the reports, saying he could not confirm or deny that the bill had been frozen.

— Raoul Wootliff