No one in the office of Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas was surprised by the Knesset’s Dec. 5 preliminary approval of the proposed legislation known as the regularization bill, legalizing wildcat West Bank settlements — which would allow Israel to take control of private Palestinian lands.
For many months the Palestinian Authority (PA) has been closely following the convoluted progress of the proposed bill in its various incarnations, and while publicly condemning it, they understood that if OK'd by Israeli lawmakers, the “parody bill” — as they’ve dubbed it — has an upside.