A ministerial legislation panel rejected a bill geared at applying Israeli law on settlements in the West Bank on Sunday, following an intervention by Justice Minister Yaakov Neeman.

The justice minister’s move came after it had become apparent that the bill would pass the Ministerial Committee for Legislation, after nine of the panel’s members indicated that they would back the legislation.

At that point, Neeman attempted to convince the bill’s initiator Likud MK Miri Regev to postpone the vote to a later date, in a bid to avert a head-on collision between Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s government and the administration of U.S. President Barack Obama.

As a result of Regev’s continued insistence, Neeman made it clear that it was Netanyahu’s position to vote against the bill, at which point panel members reversed their original votes.

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