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Jerusalem • The Israeli parliament's approval Monday of a contentious law enabling the state to seize some privately owned Palestinian land in the West Bank immediately drew harsh criticism from much of the international community, including some of Israel's closest allies.
Now, the Israeli government, realizing the law could land them in hot water, with possible lawsuits in the International Criminal Court in The Hague, has created several "talking points" to enable Israeli diplomats worldwide to contend with the global criticism.
According to Israeli media reports, the list of eight points was disseminated by the Foreign Ministry's Media and Public Affairs Division to Israeli missions around the world. It was drafted by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's political adviser, Jonathan Schachter, and his foreign media adviser, David Keyes.
The memo urges diplomats to point out, among other things, that the new law merely addresses the problem of Israeli houses in the West Bank built inadvertently on private Palestinian land and highlights that the landowners will receive monetary compensation.
Israeli journalist and commentator Yossi Melman, who revealed the list Thursday in a column for Israeli newspaper Maariv, noted some peculiarities with the arguments, however.
For starters, he wrote, there is no mention of Netanyahu's support for the law. Initially, the prime minister opposed the legislation, because he understood there would be immediate global criticism. Failing to mention Netanyahu, Melman said, "reinforces the assessment" that the prime minister and some of his ministers voted in favor of the law out of fear of upsetting right-wing voters.
The memo also suggests the government is "pinning its hopes on the Supreme Court to save Israel from the international isolation that the law is liable to cause." The arguments allow diplomats to tell Israel's critics not to get too frantic about the law because it will be knocked down in the court.
Under the law, privately owned Palestinian land in the West Bank would be seized by the government and held until there is a final resolution of the decades-long Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Palestinian landowners could apply to the state for annual rents or be given other parcels.
On Wednesday, Israeli human rights groups representing Arab villages in the West Bank petitioned the supreme court to block the law, arguing that it is illegal, violates international law and international treaties on human rights.
Here is the list of talking points:
1. The law is intended to address the problem of Israeli houses in the West Bank that were inadvertently built on land that is not state land. The majority of this construction took place decades ago.
2. The law determines that the rights of use and possession of the lands will be transferred to the authorities until a diplomatic arrangement is reached. Owners of the lands will receive fair monetary compensation for the use or alternative nearby lands.
3. This is a balanced solution for the owners of the lands as well as for the families at risk of being evicted from and losing the homes in which they have lived for decades.
4. The law aims to minimize the need to destroy people's homes that were built many years ago.
5. It is important to note that the law addresses a limited number of existing cases and is in no way a license for land confiscation.
6. The law will not apply retroactively to cases in which a ruling has already been issued by the court, such as Amona and the nine houses in Ofra.
7. Israel is a nation of laws. The Government of Israel attaches great importance to honoring court decisions and will enforce the law among all sectors of the population, as was evident during the painful evacuation of Amona.
8. Any law passed by the Knesset (the Israeli Parliament) can be reviewed by the High Court of Justice, if challenged.