A majority of Knesset members declared their opposition to Palestinian statehood in advance of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s anticipated trip to Washington later this month.
They asked Knesset Speaker MK Amir Ohana (Likud) to hold a plenum debate and vote on the issuance of a declaration rejecting Palestinian statehood.
That declaration would state: ”The Israeli Knesset categorically opposes founding a Palestinian state west of the Jordan (River).”
The letter to Ohana was signed by 63 parliamentarians and initiated by the leaders of the Knesset's Land of Israel Caucus, MKs Yuli Edelstein (Likud), Simcha Rothman (Religious Zionist Party), and Limor Son Harmelech (Otzma Yehudit).
“A moment before the prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu travels to Congress, the members of the caucus wish to stand by him as an all-Israeli impenetrable wall, against dangerous attempts by those states who wish to give a backwind to terror, in the form of a Palestinian terror state in the heart of the Land of Israel,” the Knesset members wrote to Ohana.
Signatories included politicians from eight parties in both the government and the opposition: From the coalition, the Likud, Shas, United Torah Judaism, Religious Zionist Party, and Otzma Yehudit, and from the opposition, United Right, National Unity, and Yisrael Beytenu.
The declaration they sought would essentially overturn a previously issued Knesset declaration, supported by Netanyahu, which opposed unilateral Palestinian statehood.
That simple declaration approved in February by 99 Knesset members, also included the following: “Peace can only be achieved after we achieve total victory over Hamas and through direct negotiations between the parties without preconditions.”
It was a line that was viewed as tacit approval for Israel to enter into talks for a two-state resolution to the conflict.The declaration was seen at the time as a document that appeased far-right voices within the coalition, but which essentially gave Netanyahu the ability to meet the demand of a Saudi deal requirement that there be a pathway toward Palestinian statehood.
The declaration now sought by the Land of Israel Caucus would clarify that Israel opposed Palestinian statehood, just as Netanyahu might need diplomatically to give a nod in its direction.
The text the caucus has drafted would explain that "Founding a Palestinian state in the heart of the Land of Israel will be an existential threat to the state of Israel and its citizens, perpetuate the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, and destabilize the region.
“It will only be a short matter of time until Hamas takes over the Palestinian state and turns it into a base of radical Islamic terror, acting in coordination with the axis led by Iran, in order to wipe out the state of Israel,” the text would stressed.
Rewarding Palestinian terrorism
“Promoting the idea of a Palestinian state at this time will be a prize for terror and only encourage Hamas and its followers, who will view it as a victory stemming from the October 7 2023 massacre, and a precursor for the takeover of the middle east by Jihadist Islam,” the text would state.
In a statement accompanying the letter's publication, its initiators wrote, "The 63 signatories are a majority of the 120-member Knesset, and included prominent members of the opposition, including United Right chairman MK Gideon Sa'ar and National Unity MKs Michael Biton and Pnina Tameno-Shete.
Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich said that with an eye toward preventing Palestinian statehood, he convened the Higher Planning Council for Judea and Samaria, which in the last two days advanced and approved plans for 5,300 new homes. This included the authorization of the three outposts as neighborhoods of existing settlements.
Smotrich did agree in exchange to transfer to the Palestinian Authority three months of withheld tax fees and to extend by four months an arrangement that allows Palestinian banks to continue operating.