Settlers start hunger strike, saying they, not Arabs are Netanyahu's base
The Yesha Council leadership supports the hunger strike but has not joined it.
By TOVAH LAZAROFFRegional Cooperation Minister Ofir Akunis is seen at the outpost protest encampment.(photo credit: COURTESY YOUNG SETTLEMENTS FORUM)
Settlers reminded Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu that they, and not the Israeli-Arabs, were his electoral base as they embarked on a hunger strike Monday to protest the lack of West Bank settler outpost authorization."We decided to launch a hunger strike," said Eliyahu Atia who heads the Young Settlements Forum for the outposts.He spoke at a protest event at the outpost encampment his forum, the Yesha Council and the Knesset Land of Israel Caucus has set up outside the Prime Minister's Office to pressure Netanyahu to authorize some 70 outposts.Atia explained that he and three others from the Forum plan to start a hunger strike. The number of people embarking on the strike is expected to grow slowly over the coming days.The Yesha Council leadership supports the hunger strike but has not joined it. It did however hold a joint event Monday with the Forum to mark its launch and to call on Netanyahu to act."Those who do not act as if they are on Right, should not be expected to receive votes," Yesha Council head David Elhayani said as he warned Netanyahu he could lose votes on the Right.Settlers have changed that Netanyahu is more concerned with courting Israeli Arabs than supporting his base, noting that he was photographed with an Israeli-Arab citizen who was the million Israeli to receive the COVID-19 vaccine and has pushed to authorize unrecognized Bedouin villages."You [Netanyahu] found time this week to visit the one millionth person to be vaccinated, but you didn't find the time to call the residents of the young settlements [outposts], the people who are the salt of the earth, to call them to come talk with you," Elhayani said."Do not betray them. These are your voters. This is your base," he added.Regional Cooperation Minister Ofir Akunis said that soon the Jewish state could be facing a diplomatic battle on "all of the Land of Israel'' and that in advance of that battle it was impotent to regular these communities. In a nod to the known policies of incoming US President-elect Joe Bide who supports a two-state resolution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, Akunis said that Israel could soon be dealing with the resurrection of Palestinian statehood and two states.Community Affairs Minister Tzachi Hanegbi has written a draft decision by which the government would declare its intention to authorize the outposts, but the matter has yet to be put on the government's agenda. A provisional agenda did list a decision to authorize unrecognized Bedouin villages, which the Land of Israel Caucus has charged was placed there in an attempt to entice Joint List MK Mansour Abbas to join the Likud.
