Settlers: If Netanyahu wants votes, he must legalize outposts
A vote to regulate the outposts passed an initial reading in the Knesset.
By TOVAH LAZAROFFSetters hold protest meeting in front of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's Jerusalem office.(photo credit: YESHA COUNCIL)
Settlers warned politicians, primarily Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu that if they want their votes, they must legalize the West Bank outposts.“Whoever sees himself as the next prime minister and leader of the right-wing public in Israel, cannot ignore this most burning problem," Gush Etzion Regional Council head Shlomo Neeman said on Sunday during a protest vote in front of the Prime Minister's Office in Jerusalem.The Yesha Council and the Young Settlements Forum of outposts met there to protest the government's failure to issue a declaration of intent to legalize the outposts.Community Affairs Minister Tzachi Hanegbi has written the text of a decision of intent to authorize 46 of the fledgling communities considered illegal under Israeli law.The decision would grant them de facto recognition until such time as the authorization process is completed.Alternate Prime Minister and Defense Minister Benny Gantz has objected to the placement of the outposts on the agenda. The dispute was among the reasons Sunday’s weekly government meeting was canceled.Yesha Council chairman David Elhayani called on Netanyahu and Gantz to authorize the outposts. According to Yesha there are 70 such communities.“We are before the election period and whoever wants our vote, should really show it. Not just talk about it,” he said.A vote to regulate the outposts passed an initial reading in the Knesset.Yamina Party head MK Naftali Bennett voted for the bill, but neither Gantz nor Netanyahu were in the plenum.Settlers and the Israeli Right are pressing for action on the matter prior to the entry of US President-elect Joe Biden to the White House on January, out of fear that he would block Israel from taking such a move that would expand its land holding in Area C of the West Bank.
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