Jewish Home commits to getting ‘Regulation Law’ passed

The Jewish Home Party said that it has the votes in the Knesset to pass legislation that will protect Jewish communities in Judea and Samaria from being demolished. 

The Knesset’s Jewish Home party is insisting that it will be able to garner enough votes to get a bill known as the “Regulation Law” passed in the Knesset, despite the apparent dismissals on the part of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu for such a course of action.

“Fifty years late, the Regulation Bill will come up tomorrow and pass in the Knesset in order to give them this normalcy,” the party said in a statement. “We are certain that all members of the coalition will lend their support to make that happen.”

The Regulation Law will protect communities in Judea and Samaria from being demolished if at any point in the future it is found by Israel’s High Court to have been built on private Palestinian land.

The community of Amona, located north of Jerusalem in the Binyamin region and adjacent to Ofra, was demolished last week in accordance with a High Court ruling in 2014 that found it to have been built on private Palestinian land. The Jewish Home party said that residents in Judea and Samaria should be afforded the same guarantees in housing as other Israelis.

“Half a million residents of Samaria, Judea and the Jordan Valley deserve normal lives just like residents of Kfar Saba and Tel Aviv,” the party added.

Before leaving on Sunday to London for a visit with British Prime Minister Theresa May, Netanyahu downplayed the insistence of Jewish Home party members for the bill’s passing.

“About the regulation law, I am constantly hearing fake ultimatums,” Netanyahu said.  “There are people who are busy with empty briefings to the media and on social networks while I am busy with running the country, and as I run the country I think only about our overall national interest and act accordingly.”

According to Israel Army Radio, Netanyahu had conveyed to coalition party chairmen his preference “to coordinate the issue with the Trump administration,” reiterating a request made approximately two weeks ago.

Justice Minister Ayelet Shaked of the Jewish Home party expressed her opposition to Netanyahu’s suggestion.

“I find it hard to understand how our internal legislation now needs to be coordinated with this government or any other,” she told Israel Army Radio on Sunday.

By: Jonathan Benedek, World Israel News