New bill seeks to end ban on Jewish entry to West Bank land vacated in 2005

Carrie Keller-Lynn is a former political and legal correspondent for The Times of Israel

People walk by the water tower on the ruins of Homesh, August 27, 2019. (Hillel Meir/Flash90)
People walk by the water tower on the ruins of Homesh, August 27, 2019. (Hillel Meir/Flash90)

Pro-settlement lawmakers have reignited their fight to legalize Jewish presence on West Bank land vacated by Israel’s 2005 unilateral disengagement from the Gaza Strip and parts of the northern West Bank.

A new bill proposes to repeal sections 23 to 30(b) of 2005’s Disengagement Plan Implementation Law, sections that prohibit Jewish entry to and settlement of areas vacated under the plan.

The bill, submitted by Likud MK Yuli Edelstein and Religious Zionism lawmaker Orit Strock, is identical to a version submitted in the prior Knesset that did not advance.

Edelstein is a longtime activist against the disengagement and Strock is a leader of the Jewish community in Hebron. Edelstein has pledged to nullify the 2004 law enabling the disengagement.

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