Left-wing lawmaker challenges coalition, submits 'Annexation Bill'

Nachmias-Verbin: They should deal with the promises they spread around.

By UDI SHAHAM
Updated: FEBRUARY 18, 2017 23:27
AYELET NAHMIAS-VERBIN (photo credit: FACEBOOK)
AYELET NAHMIAS-VERBIN
(photo credit: FACEBOOK)
Ministers must explain to the public how Israel will look in 20 years without any political solution on the horizon, said Zionist Union MK Ayelet Nahmias-Verbin.
Earlier this week, the opposition lawmaker, who has supported a two-state solution, submitted a bill that suggested annexing Area C of the West Bank and applying Israeli law and sovereignty there.
“Does the Israeli government want to rule over Palestinians or does it want a Jewish and democratic state?” she asked on Friday. “If the ministers really want to do so – here they go.”
Nahmias-Verbin explained that the purpose of the legislation was to challenge the government, which has yet to present a regional-political plan, and to make the coalition deal “with the promises they spread around.”
The explanatory notes of the bill say that it aims to assist the government with implementing its world views, ease the financial and legal situation of the Palestinians and bring certainty to the region.
“I oppose annexing [Area C], and I am convinced that we should separate from the Palestinians,” she said. “The way [Prime Minister Benjamin] Netanyahu acts and hopes to be saved each time – whether it’s by a Supreme Court ruling, like in the case of the Settlements Regulation Law, or by the White House in other cases – indicates a political lack of hope that we have never seen before.”
Nahmias-Verbin added that this political uncertainty has led the government to take steps that are too small to address bigger problems, such as the bill to annex Ma’aleh Adumim and the Settlements Regulation Law, which actually damaged the large settlements blocs. “It creates illegitimacy in places that were in consensus and harms the Zionist enterprise,” she said.
This comes after Netanyahu returned from his meetings with US President Donald Trump and other senior officials in Washington. During their joint press conference, the US president demonstrated an uncertainty about the best solution to the conflict. “I’m looking at two states and one state, and I like the one that both parties like,” said Trump.
These remarks prompted great satisfaction among right-wing politicians, including Bayit Yehudi chairman Naftali Bennett, who called it a new era. “After 20 years, the Palestinian flag was lowered from the pole and was replaced by the Israeli flag,” he wrote on his Facebook page.