Jewish Home backs down, agrees to drop Amona from outpost bill

The Jewish Home party is backing down from a demand to include a clause that would have retroactively legalized outposts such as Amona in the so-called Regulation Bill to prevent settlements built on private land from being demolished if they were built with state assistance.

The centrist Kulanu party had opposed the text of the first reading of the bill presents which included an option for the controversial clause to be part of the final law. Earlier, a spokesman for the party told The Times of Israel that Kulanu MKs would abstain from the bill if it came to a vote in its current form.

Following a meeting of the heads of coalition factions this afternoon, it has been decided to remove the clause by having the Knesset vote to reinstate the original preliminary version of the bill before the retroactive clause was added, coalition sources told The Times of Israel. That vote is now scheduled to take place this evening.

A meeting of the Ministerial Committee for Legislation is likely to take place this evening after the vote in order to give the bill official coalition backing, the sources say.

— Raoul Wootliff