Likud unanimously calls for Judea and Samaria communities to be absorbed into Israel

 Email this story

Print

1 Comment

 Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s Likud political party has voted unanimously to absorb Jewish communities in Judea and Samaria into Israel.

During a special meeting of Likud’s 1,500-member Central Committee, the party agreed that Israeli civilian law should be enacted over the communities in order to streamline construction initiatives in the disputed territories.

The community of Ma’ale Adumim in Judea and Samaria. Credit: David Mosberg via Wikimedia Commons.

The communities currently fall under the Israeli military’s jurisdiction, which grants Israel’s defense minister the final say on construction projects in the area. Israelis living in Judea and Samaria are subject to the Jewish state’s civilian law.

“We will now promote the recognition of our sovereignty of the Jewish settlements in Judea and Samaria,” Israeli Public Security Minister Gilad Erdan said at the meeting.

“We must begin to enact this sovereignty. We have the moral right and obligation towards our settler brothers,” he said.

Knesset Speaker Yuli Edelstein said, “A year ago we signed a bill proposal to apply Israeli sovereignty to Ma’ale Adumim in order to create territorial contiguity between it and Jerusalem. There are those who seek to divide Jerusalem; we intend to expand it.”

Likud’s call came several days after Israel’s government approved the transfer of $11 million to fund bolstered security for the Jewish communities in Judea and Samaria.

JNS.org