Israeli attorney general Menachem Mazuz has overturned a government committee’s misbegotten decision entitling the state to confiscate all East Jerusalem property owned by thousands of West Bank Palestinians.
In a letter sent Tuesday to Finance Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who is responsible for the law’s enactment, Mazuz said it was not within the ministerial committee’s power to interpret the extent of the authority of the absentee property custodian.
In his letter, Mazuz added that applying the committee’s decision “could also have grave diplomatic repercussions on the separation fence, which has drawn strong criticism from the International Court of Justice at The Hague.”
At a time when the Palestinian Authority’s new leadership is showing signs of seriousness about cracking down on terror, Israel shouldn’t be taking needlessly provocative actions. I’m glad the rule of law has prevailed.
