Ministers seek to automatically apply all Israeli laws to citizens in West Bank
Ministers Ayelet Shaked and Yariv Levin are promoting the revolutionary directive; every government bill would automatically apply to the Israeli residents of the West Bank by becoming orders from the GOC Central Command.
Minister of Justice Ayelet Shaked and Tourism Minister Yariv Levin are promoting a measure that would apply all Israeli governmental legislation to the West Bank as well as Israel proper.
Currently, Israeli law does not apply in the territories. Instead, the GOC Central Command, who is the ex officio sovereign in the conquered territory, applies some laws to the Israeli residents by means of military orders.
According to the directive promoted by the ministers, every governmental law would automatically become an order issued by the general officer commanding.
Shaked and Levin, who head the Ministerial Committee on Legislation, decided to distribute the directive to all government ministers ahead of the Knesset’s summer session and the start of the committee’s work.
According to the new directive, before the ministerial committee discusses a government bill, it would examine its effect on the Jewish residents of the territories to make sure that their legal position is appropriately during the legislative process.
“It is impossible to accept a situation in which Israeli law does not address the 430,000 citizens of the State of Israel living in Judea and Samaria,” Shaked, a member of the Bayit Yehudi party, said. “Judea and Samaria are not Israel’s backyard, and from now on (the) ministerial committee will ask to clarify, with respect to every government law at its table, how the initiating ministry intends to treat the settlers.”
Her Likud peer added, “The settlement of Judea and Samaria is a fait accompli; it is not a temporary or transitory thing. The time has come for the State of Israel to treat all its citizens equally and apply all the same laws.
“The measure we are leading will put an end to the blatant discrimination and the disregard by the laws of the State of Israel against the regions of the homeland and the Israeli citizens living there.”
(Translated and edited by J. Herzog)
