Ramallah: Right-wing members of the Israeli parliament, the Knesset, have submitted an amended draft law which would allow the Israeli occupation to expropriate privately-owned Palestinian land until a final peace agreement is reached between Israelis and Palestinians.

The draft law was submitted on Wednesday by coalition chairman David Yoav Kish and ‘Shuli’ Mualem-Rafaeli from the ruling Likud party, along with Betzalel Yoel Smotrich of the Habayit Hayehudi party.

The draft will be presented next week to the constitution, law and justice committee of the Knesset.

The proposed law has the full support of many right-wing members of the parliament, as well as the support of the speaker of the Knesset, Yuli-Yoel Edelstein, and the Israeli minister of tourism, Yariv Gideon Levin.

According to the news site Arab 48, the draft law stipulates that lands will be only temporarily seized.

“The authority of the seizure of privately owned Palestinian land must be renewed periodically by the Israeli parliament,” reads the draft of the law.

Israel’s right-wing parties say establishing a peace deal with the Palestinians is impossible, while having consistently worked to dismantle the two-state solution approved and adopted by the international community to end the Palestinian-Israeli conflict.

This law aims to legalise the seizure of lands on which established colonies and colonist outposts are built, and would try to prevent Palestinians from approaching international courts, reported the news site.

The draft law grants Palestinians compensation for their land and, should the owners of the land refuse such compensation, they would only be allowed to appeal the matter in Israeli courts.

Should the draft law be approved by the Knesset, Israel would immediately suspend all proposed demolitions of colonist outposts across the West Bank not authorised by the regime.

Dr Abdul Sattar Qasim, a political analyst said that the Israelis know that they are not interested in a peace process with the Palestinians. “A peace process will never be reached between the parties and so none of the seized lands will be returned either,” he said. “Israel imposes new facts on the grounds, knowing those facts will never be changed.”

Qasim said that the law will be extremely dangerous if passed. “We [Palestinians] must focus on how to preserve our lands and properties.”

The occupied West Bank is home to 150 Israeli colonies officially established by the Israeli government, as well as about 100 outposts which colonists established on their own, and later applied to have legalised under Israeli law.

Israel occupied the West Bank, East Jerusalem, the Gaza Strip and the Golan Heights during the 1967 Middle East War, and immediately started building colonies there for the exclusive settlement of Jews.

Colony building on Palestinian land is illegal under international law, which strictly prohibits the establishment of colonies in occupied territories.

Confiscation of land to build or expand colonies is similarly prohibited. Numerous UN resolutions have clearly stated that the Israeli colonies constitute a violation of international law.