Shaked, Smotrich speak in front of PM residence in favor of annexation
The vigil welcomed many speakers on its second day, including Dr. Hagi Ben Artzi, the brother-in-law of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, as well as a number of Knesset members.
By JERUSALEM POST STAFFUpdated: JUNE 28, 2020 05:47Shaked, Smotrich, speak in front of PM residence in favor of annexation(photo credit: MARC ISRAEL SELLEM)
Activists standing vigil in support applying Israeli sovereignty to the West Bank and Jordan Valley finished their second day of demonstrations on Monday.Activists erected a tent to keep a three-day vigil that started on Sunday. The tent will host guests such as former justice minister Ayelet Shaked and former transportation minister Bezalel Smotrich who will present their views as well as activists who will engage in Hasbara, a term usually used to describe Israeli public relations efforts to non-Israelis but here used in the context of presenting a pro-annexation view to the public. The tent was erected facing the official residency of the prime minister in Jerusalem.The vigil welcomed many speakers on its second day, including Dr. Hagi Ben-Artzi, the brother-in-law of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, as well as a number of Knesset members.Ben-Artzi spoke about the geographical importance Judea, Samaria and the Jordan Valley has to the State of Israel, reinvigorating the notion Israel needs this land to keep the country secure from Eastern neighbors who wish to harm the Jewish state, such as Iran.He urged Netanyahu to veer away from the peace plan and unilaterally annex the Jordan Valley to earn the support of the Israeli public."Sovereignty without the Trump plan, as a way to determine the Eastern border of Israel, with an Israeli consensus and without raising any demographic problem," he reiterated."I hope the dream will come true, and that it will not turn into a nightmare. We must know that there is a great historical opportunity and, on the other hand, a danger. We must make sure we apply sovereignty but do not pay in the dangerous currency of establishing a Palestinian state," Shaked told the sovereignty tent.Smotrich also addressed the tent, "We want to apply unilateral sovereignty and not some candy that sweetens a bitter and dangerous pill of the partition of the country. If that sovereignty comes as part of a parcel deal and harms the ability to continue to establish facts on the ground and deepen our hold, it is bad."Only if the sovereignty supports the settlement efforts and the pioneers who hold the land, will it be possible to establish more communities, increase existing settlements, that is good sovereignty. It is to expand and continue the grip and settlement in Judea and Samaria. That is what will destroy the Arab hope of winning Israel and that is what will bring peace of security and coexistence, and not God forbid the Arab ambition to establish a terrorist state at the heart of Israel."The Sovereignty Movement and Sovereignty Youth activists, who support the annexation on the table, fiercely reject the implied notion that a Palestinian State will be created on the remaining 70% of West Bank lands. "The tent is not a protest tent. It is a strengthening tent for the prime minister to stand firm in the Israeli interest against a sympathetic government, like he did in the past when he stood firmly against a hostile (Obama) government. The Trump plan sees Israel and the Palestinians as equal sides in a mutual conflict."This concept is fundamentally distorted. Israel, who has exclusive rights to the Land of Israel, is attacked by terror and bloodshed by the Arabs and is then being asked to give away large parts of her homeland to the attackers? Morality, justice and history require the application of Israeli sovereignty on the Land of Israel. The additional traps in the Trump plan are the division of Jerusalem, the drying up of communities by turning them into enclaves, the security dangers and more are the origins of this significant failure," commented the heads of the Sovereignty movement, Yehudit Katsover and Nadia Matar. It is this crucial element which makes it the Deal of the Century, as it is meant to eventually lead to a two-state solution of the century long conflict between Jews and Arabs in the Middle East. This is why several settler leaders and extreme right-wing activists argue that Israel should take what’s on the table now, meaning the lands, but refuse to signal in any way that it concedes to having a new Arab state erected at its midst. The EU, Egypt and Jordan warned publicly and in confidential talks that an Israeli annexation of the lands will have ramifications. The Palestinian Authority formally declared it ended its coordination with Israel and objects to any one-sided annexation of West Bank lands.
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