‘Our answer to a UNSC resolution must be annexation of settlements”
“The UNSC council resolution, should be a trigger to put this plan into action,” said Bennet.
By TOVAH LAZAROFFUpdated: OCTOBER 31, 2016 01:18Education Minister Naftali Bennett(photo credit: MARC ISRAEL SELLEM)
Israel’s answer to any United Nations Security Council resolution on settlements must be the annexation of Area C of the West Bank, Education Minister Naftali Bennett said at a political meeting in Jerusalem on Sunday.“The UNSC resolution should be a trigger to put this plan into action,” he said at a conference of the National Union party.But many settlers and right-wing politicians are not waiting for the UNSC to take action. To mark the opening day of the Knesset on Monday, they plan to hold a demonstration to demand that the legislature pass a bill to annex the third-largest West Bank settlement, Ma’aleh Adumim, which is home to more than 37,000 people.Already on Sunday morning they began a campaign, in which they plastered buildings with large photographs of former prime ministers, including Shimon Peres, Ehud Barak and Ariel Sharon, who spoke of the city’s eternal place in Israel and its importance in protecting Jerusalem.On Monday at 9 a.m. a convoy of trucks and buses with the same posters will leave Ma’aleh Adumim and head for a rally at the Knesset, led by Mayor Benny Kashriel.The event is sponsored by the Knesset Land of Israel Caucus, Ma’aleh Adumim, the nongovernmental group Regavim and the Council for Jewish Communities of Judea and Samaria.The Peres family attacked the group for using photographs of Peres, the former president who died last month.The family said the photo and quote was from 38 years ago, thereby giving a false impression of what Peres’s views had been.“It’s a crude advertising trick,” the family said. “There is no end to the cynicism of this campaign. They know very well that Peres opposed the occupation.”Peres’s ability to change and grow is what made his a great statesmen. When Israel was vulnerable, he worked to improve its security, and when the state grew stronger, he fought for peace, the family said.