MK Smotrich: The proposed sovereignty bill would advance sovereignty without paying the dangerous price of a Palestinian state and would thwart the Arab takeover of Area C.
In an interview for Arutz 7, Member of Knesset Bezalel Smotrich (Yamina) explains the importance of the sovereignty bill that he proposed together with his co-leader of the Land of Israel Lobby, Member of Knesset Haim Katz (Likud).
“The fact that we oppose the Trump, Netanyahu plan does not mean that we are abandoning the understanding that the State of Israel must apply her sovereignty over the entire area of the Jewish settlements in Judea and Samaria, without enclaves and without isolated communities, without maps that become maps of concessions, Heaven forbid”.
Member of Knesset Smotrich goes on to note that the new bill has a clause that demands the establishment of a special authority whose role would be to thwart the Arab takeover of Area C. “They are establishing a foothold there and the Civil Administration does too little. We want to apply sovereignty without any price to the other side and to assure that the remaining area, where sovereignty is not yet applied in the first phase, is also protected so that it will be possible to progress in the future”.
Regarding the character and power of the aforesaid authority, MK Smotrich explains: “We want to establish an authority of the Defense Ministry whose role it would be to prevent the Palestinian takeover of Area C. It would be staffed by people with motivation, knowledge and tools, as well as practical and legal funding for this end. There is a long list of actions that must be taken. There is a lot of illegal international involvement of bodies with a lot of funds and we must deal with this using diplomatic means. In this context we must remember the Fiyyad plan, that was introduced ten years ago and since then, the Arabs have been working very methodically to determine facts on the ground. We must put our hand on the money that serves these ends. An authority with this function and the means to perform it, could accomplish this”.
“The discourse with the Americans is not the discourse of sovereignty, but the discourse of dividing the Land and establishing a terror state in the heart of the Land of Israel. We must say this unambiguously and we vigorously oppose this. Our job is not only to oppose the bad things, but to propose good things as well”.
Smotrich does not view this proposal as quarreling with the Prime Minister or trying to embarrass him. “This law is also submitted by Member of Knesset Haim Katz, who is head of the Likud Central Committee, a very powerful figure in the Likud. There are MKs from all factions in the lobby, as has been the case for very many years. The lobby took it upon itself to promote several goals in the Negev and Galilee as well, and the promotion of sovereignty in the best way and not by accepting a package deal with very grave dangers. The role of the opposition is also to mention to the coalition what it promised before the elections. In each of the three elections that we had, sovereignty played a very significant part in the promises made by the Prime Minister and the Likud and the promise was not, Heaven forbid, to establish a Palestinian state nor to pursue a dangerous political path, but to apply sovereignty as a good step independently, not as part of negotiations”.
The proposed bill is another level in the set of similar proposals and MK Smotrich says this about the difference between them: “Those bills made sovereignty a strong brand of the Right and this is what gave it a chance, if not today, then later. The role of the Lobby is to float the subject continually and to challenge the political system and the political leadership. The campaign that we led together with people imbued with the goal, like Nadia and Yehudit, is, in large part, responsible for keeping the subject on the agenda. When we began with the subject of sovereignty, it was perceived as something fanciful but today there is a consensus on the Right and when you act in a true and correct and resolute way consistently, it brings about good results”.
Focusing on the difference between the present bill and its predecessors, Smotrich says: “The basis of the bill is identical to the bill that we proposed in the twentieth Knesset. We added the component of protecting Area C, and this is the understanding that sovereignty must not, in any way, cause the abandonment of the part over which there will not be sovereignty. We want sovereignty over the entire territory and are willing to have it in phases but it must be assured that the current application of sovereignty in part of the area now, will not negate a future application of sovereignty in the remainder of the area, neither in the American understanding nor de facto, by Arab behavior in the area”.
Regarding the term “the expanse of settlement” and its meaning, Smotrich explains that this term “is intended to entail the future expanse of settlement, areas of agriculture, industry and the continuum between the communities in order to assure that enclaves will not be created and that sovereignty will not create a situation that will cause damage or create a distinction between communities of type A and communities of type B”.
Does this mean that in the future it will be difficult to establish communities on the area that will not be included in the first phase of sovereignty? Smotrich believes that this will not be the case at all. “This is the difference between sovereignty that is part of a very bad deal that includes commitment to the Americans not to develop the settlement enterprise in the area outside sovereignty, etc. on the one hand, and on the other hand, sovereignty as we want it, as a unilateral step taken by the State of Israel, that does not abandon the area and prevents an Arab takeover of it, and allows for settlement de facto to progress there too”.