The imposition of Israeli law on West Bank settlements became the winning card for a forming Israeli government, after the recent Knesset elections between Likud and other right-wing parties, the Palestinian Liberation Organization and National Bureau for Defending Land reported.
The office explained, in a statement on Saturday, that settler leaders in the occupied West Bank are demanding the Israeli law to include all Jewish settlements in these territories, including them in agreements to form the next government.
The report pointed out,according to Al Ray, that pressures are excreted in this direction, and that these tendencies arise following estimates that Donald Trump’s management plan known as the “Deal of the Century” calls for keeping the settlements under Israeli rule, in any permanent peace agreement, and that the US administration will not oppose the expansion of Israeli law to include settlements in the West Bank.
It explained that the illegal settlers believe that the opportunity is now ripe for such a move, after the transfer of US Embassy to Jerusalem and the recognition of Israeli sovereignty over the occupied Syrian Golan Heights. Netanyahu had pledged several times, in the run-up to the elections, last April, to expand the scope of Israeli law to include all settlements, and that he would be able to do so with US support.
The report pointed out that, days before the election, Netanyahu pledged to expand the scope of Israeli sovereignty to include all settlements, both the large settlement blocs or small settlement outposts, ruling out the establishment of a Palestinian state, which he said “poses a threat to the existence of Israel.”
It considered Trump’s recognition of Israeli sovereignty over the Golan Heights encouraged Netanyahu to annex the settlements. The timing of this move would follow with Trump’s offer of peace plan. If the Palestinian leadership, as expected, rejected the plan and Netanyahu agreed with certain reservations, the latter believed Trump would give him legitimacy to annex and expand Israeli law to include all West Bank settlements or at least some blocs.
In an additional step aimed at imposing Israeli sovereignty on the West Bank without formally announcing it, the Israeli “right-wing coalition” demanded that Netanyahu and the Likud party reduce the powers of the “civil administration” in the West Bank, and prevent them completely from interfering in settler affairs.
Some 200 former Israeli security officials signed a petition, addressed to Netanyahu, demanding a referendum before deciding to impose Israeli law on areas of the West Bank.
