Ministers advance bill to legalize 66 outposts deep in West Bank

The Ministerial Committee for Legislation votes to advance a bill that will require the state to legalize 66 illegal outposts located deep in the West Bank.

The bill is known as Regulation Law 2 and seeks to regulate hilltop communities built beyond the Green Line over the past 20 years, in light of the High Court of Justice’s freezing of the so-called Regulation Law passed in February 2017.

The legislation focuses on illegal outposts that are claimed to have been built on what is considered to be state land, rather than private Palestinian land.

Regulation Law 2 will give a Knesset-appointed outpost legalization committee, headed by former chairman of the Yesha Council settlement umbrella group Pinchas Wallerstein, a two-year deadline to legalize the 66 outposts.

In the meantime, the hilltop communities would be safeguarded from demolition by the state, despite their construction without the necessary permits. The proposal would see the outposts’ treatment as full-fledged settlements while the state works toward their regulation.

— Jacob Magid