Posted on 05/30/22
| News Source: i24
The law ensures that settlers are treated as though they live in Israel in most matters
Israel's coalition withdrew a bill to renew the extension of Israeli criminal and some civil laws to Israelis living in the West Bank several hours before it was set to come up for its first vote on Monday.
This comes hours after opposition parties pledged not to support any coalition legislation.
A spokesperson for Justice Minister Gideon Sa'ar said in a statement that he agreed to a request by Prime Minister Naftali Bennett and Foreign Minister and Alternate Prime Minister Yair Lapid to push the vote back by a week. This was done “in order to maximize efforts to pass this vital law," The Times of Israel reported.
Enacted initially after the 1967 Six Day War, the law is an "emergency measure" that must be renewed every five years, last passed in 2017 and set to expire at the end of June.
In practice, the law ensures that settlers are treated as though they live in Israel in most matters, such as through income tax and health insurance.
Israel's 120-member parliament (Knesset) sits at 60-60 seats between the opposition and the coalition, and the Islamist Ra'am party has not said how they would vote on the bill, if presented.
The coalition cannot expect help from the opposition's right-religious bloc — which calls themselves the "national camp" — on the West Bank law after it decided it would not provide the coalition with the votes, despite the fact they are ideologically in favor of the law.