Deputy foreign minister defends ‘justice’ of settlements law

Deputy Foreign Minister Tzipi Hotovely, an attorney by training, rejects the widespread criticism of the Regulation Law passed Monday in the Knesset.

“The settlement law that the Israeli parliament passed this week reflects a just legal principle,” she says in a statement Wednesday.

“The underlying premise behind the critics of Israel is that this is occupied Palestinian land. This premise is incorrect. Israel has both historic and legal rights to this land and the law reaches the right balance between the rights of the Jewish families to their homes and the right of the owners of these plots of land to get compensation. The legal principle of compensation is known in all Western legal systems. And this principle that Israel adopted this week creates the right justice between the Palestinians and the Jewish families.”