Alternative Prime Minister and Defense Minister Benny Gantz (Blue and White) supports the authorization of West Bank outposts, a minister in his party told a right-wing rally outside the Prime Minister’s Office in Jerusalem on Sunday.
“The Blue and White party is a centrist party that cares about all the residents of the state of Israel,” Diaspora Affairs Minister Omer Yankelevitch told the protesters. “We will do everything in our power to help you.”
The demonstrators gathered during the government’s weekly meeting to press Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to hold a vote on the matter immediately.
Last week, Community Affairs Minister Tzachi Hanegbi (Likud) said he and Minister in the Defense Ministry Michael Biton (Blue and White) would draft a government decision on the matter.
The initiative already has Netanyahu’s support, Hanegbi told the Knesset plenum.
At issue is the fate of some 100 unauthorized outposts built between 1992 and 2020, which the Left says are illegal and which the Right claims are fledgling communities pending authorization.
It is unclear how many outposts would be included in the text of the government’s decision, Hanegbi has told The Jerusalem Post. He was starting from a base of 69 fledgling communities, he said.
The Right now refers to the outposts as young settlements and has asked the government to codify this as a legal understanding.
At issue for the Right is the importance of taking such a step before US President Donald Trump leaves office and before another possible round of early elections.
“It is important for me to say that I support you and stand by your side in your just struggle,” Yankelevitch told the activists and representatives of the outposts. Gantz also “supports you and gives his full backing to Biton and his work to authorize the young settlements.”
“We have to bring an end to this dialogue of hate against the residents of Judea and Samaria,” she said. “There is no reason why they should live in substandard conditions.”
Speaking at the rally, Hanegbi said he spoke at the Knesset last week not just about his “private hope” but also about Netanyahu’s.
The current government, he said, “is not an ordinary government. Still, we do not intend to deviate from the government’s obligation to discuss the matter to clarify to our partners that this is a consensus matter. Those who [settled] on the land were sent by this or that party, but they were emissaries of the Israeli government on behalf of all of its citizens.”
Higher Education Minister Ze’ev Elkin (Likud) said almost all the communities within sovereign Israel and among West Bank settlements had been built first and authorized later in a manner similar to the hoped-for status of the outposts. In some cases, authorization came only decades after the communities were first built, he added.
“There is a window of opportunity here, and it is critical that we take advantage of it,” Elkin said. “We have to do everything we can in the coming weeks to bring about a government decision.”