Two members of the Israeli Knesset (parliament) from the prospective government coalition led by Benjamin Netanyahu presented, on Tuesday, a bill to cancel the “disengagement” plan from the occupied northern West Bank, according to which Tel Aviv evacuated settlements in the region.
According to the private Israeli Channel 12, Knesset members Yuli Edelstein (Likud Party) and Orit Struck (religious Zionism) submitted a bill to cancel the “disengagement” in the northern West Bank.
She explained that the goal of the project is “to allow the re-residence and free movement of Israeli citizens (settlers) in the area, and will later allow planning and rebuilding of the evacuated settlements.”
The “disengagement” is a unilateral Israeli plan implemented by the government of former Prime Minister Ariel Sharon in the summer of 2005, under which settlements and army camps in the Gaza Strip, in addition to 4 settlements in the northern West Bank, were evacuated.
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For its part, the Hebrew newspaper Yedioth Ahronoth reported that even before the formation of the government was announced, the bill known as the “Homesh Law” was presented to the Knesset and signed by 35 deputies from all parties of the future coalition, including Netanyahu.
And “Homesh” is one of the outposts that were evacuated within the “disengagement”, and the presence of settlers in it has become illegal, but since 2009 a religious school (yishiva) has been established in it, and dozens of settlers study daily in it.
Netanyahu’s agreements with his partner parties in the upcoming government coalition include clauses related to religion, settlements and democracy, and Israeli opposition parties consider that these agreements undermine democracy and fuel conflict.
Last November 13, Israeli President Isaac Herzog granted Netanyahu a mandate to form a government within 28 days, which ended without him accomplishing the task, so Friday gave him a ten-day extension, and if he did not succeed, Herzog would assign another figure to form it.
Netanyahu concluded initial agreements with religious and far-right right-wing parties to form the government, and with the Likud, it has 64 seats in the Knesset.
Out of 120 members of the Knesset, the government must obtain the support of at least 61 in order to gain the confidence of Parliament.
