Netanyahu says Benny Gantz blocking authorization of outposts

"I am willing to do a full authorization - not [just] four communities, not [just] crumbs, all the communities, we have a list," the PM said.

JANUARY 3, 2021 11:57

Tzachi Hanegbi at a protest tent erected by the Yesha Council and Young Settlements Forum outside Netanyahu’s Jerusalem office. (photo credit: MARC ISRAEL SELLEM) — Tzachi Hanegbi at a protest tent erected by the Yesha Council and Young Settlements Forum outside Netanyahu’s Jerusalem office.

(photo credit: MARC ISRAEL SELLEM)

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said he would authorize all the West Bank outposts but was prevented from doing so by Alternative Prime Minister and Defense Minister Benny Gantz, according to a report by Army Radio.

"I am willing to do a full authorization - not [just] four communities, not [just] crumbs, all the communities, we have a list," Netanyahu told the Likud Party secretary on Saturday night.

Army Radio played a short and scratchy recording of his words on the outpost authorization.

"To my sorrow, we have not succeeded until this moment," Netanyahu said.

"I had been prepared to authorize for [Gantz] a few unrecognized Bedouin communities [in the Negev]. I said, but I want something in exchange and that is the young settlements [outposts]," Netanyahu said.

"It's not that we do not want to do it [vote on the outposts], but we are limited by law," he said.

According to the coalition agreement, he explained, Gantz’s approval is necessary to bring such an issue to the government.

Netanyahu has yet to make a public statement about the matter. Community Affairs Minister Tzachi Hanegbi (Likud), however, has spoken about it publicly.

In November, Hanegbi announced to the Knesset that he intended to write a draft declaration with the intention of legalizing all outposts. The declaration would have to be voted on by the weekly government. He added that he was acting at the request of Netanyahu.

The Young Settlements Forum, which represents the outposts, has spoken of some 70 fledgling communities that need to be authorized, but Hanegbi has said that his declaration only covers 46 of them.

Since Hanegbi's completion of the draft resolution last month, the matter has yet to come to the government.

Typically, the government meets weekly, but it last convened on December 22. The disagreement between Netanyahu and Gantz on the issue of outpost authorization is one of the reasons the government has not met in almost two weeks.

An initial draft of a provisional government agenda showed a line item that spoke of the authorization of unrecognized Bedouin communities in the Negev, within the boundaries of sovereign Israel. There was no line item for the outposts that are located in the West Bank, outside of Israel’s sovereign borders.

Last week, the Israeli Right and settlers set up a protest encampment outside Netanyahu's office to demand that he convene the government to vote on the matter.

When it was first raised, the hope had been that such a vote would be held prior to the collapse of the government, which would have given it more weight.

The Right, however, has continued to pressure Netanyahu.

Former Likud Higher Education and Water Resource Minister Ze'ev Elkin, who left the Likud to join Gideon Sa'ar's New Hope Party, took issue with Netanyahu’s rendition of events regarding the outposts, noting that what Netanyahu said was "just not true."

"Netanyahu did not at all seek to regulate the young settlement [outposts]," Elkin said, adding that Netanyahu was the one who put the issue of the unrecognized Bedouin villages on the table and in so doing, was not under any pressure from anyone.

"Only the pressure that I, and other Likud ministers who joined me, exerted on the government" generated movement on the outpost issue, Elkin said.

Last week Elkin visited the settler protest encampment to show his solidarity with the issue.