A/HRC/31/43 28. In October 2015, Likud Member of the Knesset, Yoav Kisch, proposed a bill aimed at enabling the “regulation” (retroactive legalization, under Israeli law) of settlement construction on private Palestinian land though the confiscation of land from their owners, in return for compensation.18 According to his proposal, confiscated property would be allocated to the Settlement Division of the World Zionist Organization, which would subsequently allocate the land for the needs of retroactively “regulated” settlements. The proposals put forward in the bill circumvent the rulings of the Israeli High Court of Justice in a number of high-profile cases (see below), which ordered the demolition of illegal settlement construction on privately owned Palestinian land. A debate on the bill in the Ministerial Committee for Legislation was postponed at the last minute, apparently due to diplomatic pressure on the Government of Israel. In a comment published by the Knesset Channel website, Yoav Kisch stated that the bill had been suspended pending a review of its legality under international law. A similar bill had been rejected by the Knesset in 2012. E. Court judgements and demolition of settlement structures 29. During the reporting period, the Israeli High Court of Justice issued rulings to uphold Palestinians’ right to private property in the West Bank. This has been borne out in a number of high-profile rulings, including in the cases of Amona, Ofra, Beit El and Givat Zeev, as well as in the course of court proceedings regarding the construction on Qaryut lands in the settlement of Derekh Ha’Avot and the use of farmland by settlers in the Jordan Valley. 30. On 29 July 2015, Israeli security forces demolished two settlement apartment buildings, the “Dreinoff” buildings, which had been under construction on the outskirts of the settlement of Beit El, on privately owned land belonging to a resident of the adjacent Palestinian village of Dura al-Qara. The demolitions were carried out upon the orders of the Minister of Defence, pursuant to High Court judgments issued in September 2014 and June 2015, after lengthy legal proceedings and repeated attempts by the Israeli authorities and settlers to have the buildings retroactively approved. 31. Violent clashes erupted between hundreds of settlers and security forces in the days leading up to the scheduled demolition, as settler leaders and youth moved to occupy the buildings and confronted Israeli forces so as to prevent the demolition of the settlement structures. Unrest then spread to other areas in the West Bank. Developments in this case elicited strong reactions from factions of the Government of Israel, ultimately causing tensions within the governing coalition. Senior government officials of the Jewish Home party publically protested against the demolition, and Minister for Education, Naftali Bennett, addressed settlers and sympathizers gathered at the Dreinoff buildings, criticizing Ministry of Defence orders to deploy security forces to the site on the day before the scheduled demolition.19 On the day of the demolitions, the Prime Minister approved the construction of 300 additional housing units in the Beit El settlement. 20 18 19 20 8 Regulation Draft Law No. P/1973/20, 2015 (authors: Yoav Kisch, Bezalel Smotrich, David Bitan, Nava Boke, Israel Eichler, Eli Cohen, Machluf Miki Zohar, Avraham Naguisa, Robert Ilatov and Sharon Gal). Ministers Uri Ariel, Ze’ev Elkin and Yariv Levin released a joint statement: “We came here to express our support for the residents of Beit El, their desire to build up their community, and their protest against the unnecessary demolition.” See Chaim Levinson, “Hundreds of Young Settlers Clash Violently With Police at Beit El”, Haaretz, 28 July 2015. Stuart Winter and Judah Gross, “As two buildings torn down at Beit El, Netanyahu approves 300 more”, Times of Israel, 29 July 2014.