Knesset passes preliminary reading of law to cancel ‘disengagement’ in northern West Bank

The Knesset passes the preliminary reading of a bill that will cancel the so-called “disengagement” in the northern West Bank.

The bill passes with 62 MKs in favor and 36 against.

It amends the 2005 Disengagement Law, which had led to the evacuation of four settlements in the northern West Bank along with all the Israeli settlements and military presence in the Gaza Strip.

The bill, which only relates to the parts of the law pertaining to the northern West Bank, is key to the current government’s goal of legalizing the illegal settlement outpost of Homesh and a yeshiva that has been built there, which activists have tried repeatedly to reestablish since 2005.

The legislation was submitted by the chairman of the Knesset Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee, Likud MK Yuli Edelstein, with the backing of National Missions Minister Orit Strock.

It will need three additional votes to pass into law.