Amona evacuation. An act of self-scarifice for the greater goal of regulation
Photo: TPS
Regulation Law is just business as usual
Op-ed: Despite international law, despite the principles of justice and common sense, the High Court has accepted the legitimacy of the annexation. It’s permitted to steal Palestinian lands because there is no such thing as Palestinian lands. They are ‘public lands.’ What public? The settler public.
There is basically nothing new in the Regulation Law, which was approved by the Knesset
on Monday and allows the state to legalize the takeover of private Palestinian lands in the territories retroactively. In practice, the State of Israel has been operating in the territories according to a sweeping and consistent principle—anything the settlers do is legal, legitimate and Zionist.
It’s true that the High Court of Justice intervenes sometimes and orders home demolitions or the evacuation of one outpost or another, but these interventions are like a drop in the ocean. If one land expropriation is forbidden, another—a larger one—will come along. If one illegal outpost is evacuated, others—larger ones—will be established. The illegality of these outposts is legal in the eyes of the authorities.
Amona. The Regulation Law says what everyone is thinking: There is no law for the Palestinians (Photo: Reuters)
In practice, the State of Israel operates vis-à-vis the settlers according to the thinking-in-reverse principle. First, the settlers do as they please. Then, the State of Israel finds ways to legalize their abominable behavior. When one looks at the overall picture, the High Court’s rare disruptions of the annexation race are marginal. Someone rarely gives a damn, and it’s just business as usual.
In practice, despite international law, despite the principles of justice and common sense, the High Court has accepted the principle of the annexation’s legitimacy. It’s permitted to steal Palestinian lands, because there is no such thing as Palestinian lands. They are “public lands.” What public? The settler public. When the High Court intervenes, it intervenes in the name of protecting the sanctity of private property, but the most important thing at the end of the day is the abominable annexation, and the abominable annexation is thriving.
The private property issue, which is allegedly the bone of contention, was forgotten in the Knesset discussion as well. Minister Ofir Akunis declared that the approved law was an expression of our right to the land. “The dispute is over our basic right to this land. We are voting not just on the Regulation Law, but on the connection between the Jewish people and their land. This entire land is ours.”
Seemingly, you will say, the Regulation Law is not a vote on the Jewish people’s right to their land, because it deals with rights to private property. In practice, Akunis clarifies, the meaning of the Jewish people’s right to the entire land is ignoring every right, whether collective or private, of the other people (“the demographic problem”) living here. In other words, if we have a right—others don’t.
But the Regulation Law did not invent this principle. It has been strengthened by all Israeli governments, if not in their declarations—then in their actions. The law simply provides a harsh and blatant expression of the reality on the ground. Look at the comments made by Knesset Member Israel Eichler (United Torah Judaism), one of the law’s supporters, who saw it fit to praise Amona’s residents for evacuating without rioting(!) Why are land robbers, who established a community which they knew was based on deceit, worthy of praise? Because in the settler state (also known as the State of Israel), any implication that people who are not Jewish settlers have rights too is a moral scandal.
The willingness of the alleged law transgressors from Amona to (relatively) restrain themselves and not to resist the law authorities was an act of self-sacrifice for the greater goal. What goal? The Regulation Law. The law that says what everyone is thinking: There is no law for the Palestinians. Their insistence on their rights is annoying. It’s time to stop it.
More than the law (which removes a marginal obstacle in the annexation race), the important thing is the loss of concern over the world’s response and the public opinion. The Netanyahu government, which is taking refuge in the shadow of the great boxthorn from Washington, Donald Trump, is no longer afraid of what the world will say. It is definitely not afraid of the opposition, which keeps voicing warnings—from Opposition Leader Isaac Herzog’s mouth—expressing the ideological partnership with the Right.
Herzog, so it seems, has no problem in principle with the abominable annexation and with the apartheid it entails. He cares about preserving the legal outward appearance maintained by the High Court. Why? Because “international indictments will now be issued against Jewish and Israeli soldiers and officers.” Forget about the Palestinians. Jews are in danger. Gevald! With such an opposition, the Right has nothing to worry about.
