A/HRC/37/43 implemented following petitions filed against it with the High Court of Justice and a temporary injunction issued by the Court on 17 August 2017.12 17. The Israeli Attorney General has publicly opposed the regularization law and requested the court to suspend its application pending a final decision. At the same time, however, he confirmed an alternative way to expropriate privately owned Palestinian land.13 In a legal opinion issued on 7 November 2016, the Attorney General approved the use of Military Order No. 29 (1967) to legalize settlement constructions built on private Palestinian land, when built in good faith, based on the assumption that it was on State land, and with adequate compensation to the lawful landowners.14 The regularization law might therefore not be necessary for Israel to achieve the retroactive legalization under national law of a large number of houses in settlements and of many outposts built on privately owned Palestinian land.15 C. Settlement infrastructure 18. On 25 October 2017, the Prime Minister of Israel vowed to promote an 800 million shekel plan for bypass roads in the West Bank. According to the non-governmental organization Peace Now, the purpose is to connect settlements in the West Bank with Israel and the main West Bank traffic arteries, while reducing the need for settlers to drive through Palestinian towns and villages. The organization warns that projects of this kind have entailed the confiscation of private Palestinian land.16 19. Construction of the East Jerusalem ring road between the Palestinian communities of Al-Za’ayyim and Anata commenced in September 2017. The road is separated by a wall, with a road for Palestinians on one side and a road for Israelis on the other. Once completed, it will play a significant role in the development of the E1 settlement infrastructure (A/70/351, para. 18). Construction of the wall continued south of Jerusalem, through the Cremisan Valley – at imminent threat of being cut off from the West Bank – and around the village Al-Walaja, further isolating this Palestinian village situated near the settlements of Gilo and Har Gilo. D. Settler violence 20. Settler violence has increased since the previous reporting period, reaching a peak during the first half of 2017. During the period under review, the Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs documented 147 incidents of settler violence, as against 104 in the previous reporting period. The incidents resulted in Palestinian casualties (three killed and 75 injured, including 19 children), and 110 of the incidents led to damage to Palestinian property. 21. On 6 September, 16-year-old Usama Daghlas was, according to the victim, attacked 500 m from his house, in Burqa village, by 10 to 20 settlers who beat him unconscious. 12 13 14 15 16 Besides delaying the application of the law, the injunction halts the enforcement of demolition orders on illegal settlement construction on private Palestinian land in the West Bank. In his response to the High Court of Justice to the petitions against the law submitted on 22 November 2017, the Attorney General, while opposing the law, explained that other more proportionate tools could be used to achieve the same goals, referring to his legal opinion of 8 November 2017, where he asserted that, on the basis of a recent decision of the High Court of Justice, privately owned Palestinian land could be expropriated for public purposes in settlements where only the settlers can benefit from it. See http://peacenow.org.il/wp-content/uploads/2017/11/AG-responseexpropriation-law.pdf (in Hebrew). On 19 November 2017, the Government of Israel relied on the opinion in a petition pending before the High Court of Justice to justify the expropriation of 45 dunams of private Palestinian land. See Haaretz, Yotam Berger, “Israel’s Attorney General paves way for legalization of at least 13 West Bank outposts”, 19 November 2017; and “Israeli attempt to ‘legalize’ settler homes built on private Palestinian land gets legal backing”, 23 November 2017. Peace Now, “800 million shekel plan for bypass roads in the West Bank approved by Netanyahu”, 26 October 2017. 5