A Knesset committee on Tuesday approved for first reading a bill aimed at repealing a Jordanian-era law that discriminates against non-Arabs who want to buy land in Judea and Samaria.

The legislation, brought forward privately by lawmakers Moshe Solomon (Religious Zionism Party), Limor Son Har-Melech (Otzma Yehudit) and Yuli Edelstein (Likud), will now advance to the Knesset plenum for the first of three readings required to become law.

The explanatory notes to the bill read: “The Law on the Lease and Sale of Immovable Property to Foreigners was enacted by the Jordanian authorities in 1953. The purpose of the Jordanian law was to prevent the purchase of land in Judea and Samaria by foreigners—that is, by people who were not Jordanian citizens or Arabs. This law remained in force after the liberation of the Judea and Samaria area in 1967, and since then it has been directed mainly against Jews. This reality, which imposes restrictions on the right of a citizen of the State of Israel to acquire rights in real estate in the Judea and Samaria area solely because he is an Israeli citizen, is unacceptable.”

Likud lawmaker Boaz Bismuth, chairman of the Knesset Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee, opened the deliberation saying that “There is no reason that in 2025 a Jew should not be able to purchase land in Judea and Samaria—in his own country. It is our responsibility, as members of Knesset and as a state, to stand by the settlements and the national interest. The time has come to remove the discrimination and restore the natural right of Israeli citizens to their land.”

The proposal was approved by four members of the committee with no objections, the Knesset website read.

Israeli NGO Regavim, which monitors illegal construction in Judea and Samaria, lauded the decision.

“After years of effort, a historic injustice is being corrected. This outdated, discriminatory Jordanian-era law must be abolished,” it said in a statement.

The organization noted that representatives of various ministries asked to freeze the legislation’s progress some six months ago during an earlier committee hearing, pending the military commander’s order addressing the issue that was expected “within a week.”

As no order materialized from the head of IDF Central Command, the committee elected to proceed with legislation that would mandate the military commander rescind the discriminatory provision, Regavim said.

“With this decision, the State of Israel has initiated the essential process of repealing a discriminatory and antisemitic legal relic,” Regavim Director-General Meir Deutsch said in a statement.

Regavim has campaigned for years to rescind the “distorted reality in which Jews are barred from purchasing land in Judea and Samaria,” he said

Watch a cartoon produced by the Israeli NGO that portrays the present situation in Judea and Samaria.

The post Knesset panel advances bill to end anti-Israeli land law in Judea, Samaria appeared first on JNS.org.