Israel’s Supreme Court has rejected a request from the Ministry of Justice for a ban on public plumbing in the occupied West Bank.
The ruling came after a petition filed by the Palestinian Center for Policy and Survey Research (PBSR) called for a nationwide ban on plumbing in areas of the West Bank controlled by Israel.
In response, the Ministry said the ban would “not have any effect whatsoever on the Palestinian people and will not have any impact whatsoever on their freedom of movement.”
“There is no way to enforce this ban in any way, shape or form, the ministry stated.
It also added that “the government has no legal authority to implement the prohibition,” adding that the “procedural obstacles” that would be put in place by the ban “would not be the same as those that are imposed on other areas.””
This will create no legal obstacles for the Palestinian government to implement these regulations, and it will not be a legal obstacle for the Israeli government to impose similar restrictions,” the ministry said in a statement.
Israel annexed the West Jerusalem neighborhoods of East Jerusalem and the West Gaza Strip in the 1967 Mideast war and later annexed them to Israel in a move never recognized internationally.
It has a Jewish majority and a Palestinian minority.
Palestinians say Israel has violated international law by keeping West Bank Palestinians in a status of illegal immigrants, which is considered a violation of international law.