Published: 12 February 2019
Last updated: 5 April 2024
Plan to retroactively legalise structures in Alei Zahav, invoking new legal mechanism. Decision comes as Netherlands recognises Gaza, West Bank as official birthplaces for Palestinians
Israel says it will legalise West Bank homes built on private Palestinian land (Haaretz)
The state informed the Jerusalem District Court that it will retroactively legalise structures built in part on private Palestinian land in the West Bank settlement of Alei Zahav.
In doing so, the state will for the first time invoke a legal mechanism the attorney general approved in December, senior sources say. Alei Zahav is a secular settlement located close to Route 5, which links Ariel and the Greater Tel Aviv area.
Netherlands recognises Gaza, West Bank as official birthplaces for Palestinians (Haaretz)
Palestinians living in the Netherlands will soon be allowed to register Gaza and the West Bank as their official place of birth, Dutch State Secretary Raymond Knops told the House of Representatives in The Hague on Friday.
The Netherlands, which does not recognise Palestine as a sovereign state, currently gives Palestinians two options when specifying their birthplace at the Dutch civil registry – Israel or unknown.
Knops, however, wrote in a letter to the House of Representatives that he intends to add “the Gaza Strip and the West Bank, including East Jerusalem” to a list of states used by the civil registry.
Gap between parties becomes a chasm on Middle East peace (SMH)
PAUL DUFFILL Recognition of Palestine does not lock the parties into pursuing only the elusive “two-state solution” should it prove untenable and better solutions arise from genuine negotiations between the parties.
