The creativity of the Justice Ministry knows no bounds when it comes to trying to whitewash the crimes of the settlements. After the shameful vote on the unconstitutional law to retroactively legalize illegal settlements, which although it passed its preliminary vote in the Knesset is destined to be struck down in court, the attorney general and the justice minister are seeking alternatives to retroactively legalize outposts. Their efforts are intended to legitimize not only the outposts, but the apartheid rule in the territories.

One of the proposals is to declare settlers a local population, in an area defined as under military occupation. This declaration has many problems, but even if it could be accepted, in the end it would define both populations – Jewish and Palestinian – as local populations in an occupied zone.

By this definition would it be possible to take lands from one population at the expense of another? That is, could lands be taken from Jews to benefit the Palestinians? Would the laws that are applied to the Palestinian local population, including military law, be applied to the settlers, with both groups judged by the same courts and according to the same laws?

Since the answer to this question is no, defining the settlers as a local population, will only continue a long process of creating apartheid rule. Because if these are local populations, why should they be subject to different legal systems and why should they not have equal rights, including granting Palestinians the right to vote in elections in Israel?

Over the years, the High Court of Justice has refused to touch the hot potato of the settlements legality. Rather, it has ruled that as long as settlers are living in the territories, their needs have to be met like the needs of any person living in a certain place. But what does that have to do with taking private Palestinian lands on which to build or expand the settlements?

The Justice Ministrys reliance on a controversial arrangement, used in Cyprus, is nothing more than a superfluous, damaging and manipulative action. The best solution for Israel is the two-state solution. The other possibility – granting full civil rights and equality before the law for Jews and Palestinians – would mean the end of the Jewish state. The third possibility is called apartheid.