Israel’s President Joins Opposition to Law Legalizing Homes Built on Private Land

Israeli President Reuven Rivlin has lent his voice to those opposing pending legislation known as the Regularization Bill, a measure enacted last week that legalizes building by Jewish Israelis that was carried out on land privately owned by the nation’s Arab population. The legislation has become a flash-point for controversy, the Palestinians arguing that the bill is a mechanism to put a legal face on the illegal confiscation of Palestinian land and the international community furiously accusing Israel of passing anti-democratic laws. Speaking at a conference in Jerusalem, Rivlin, whose entire public career prior to his election to the largely ceremonial post of president was on the political right, declared that Israelis must “find a way to politically live with the other residents of Israel.” He said the basic issue is how Israel applies sovereignty to areas it conquered in the 1967 war. East Jerusalem and the Golan Heights have been formally annexed to the state while the West Bank has not, which gives way to ambiguities of ownership, particularly in cases where individual Palestinians are able to provide pre-1967 documentation proving ownership. Referring to the overwhelming international opposition to Israel’s presence in post-1967 West Bank, Rivlin said laws such as the one in question should not be passed relative to areas not under Israeli sovereignty. German Chancellor Angela Merkel cancelled a joint summit with Prime Minister Netanyahu, the reason being reported by German and Israeli media is the new law.