Courtesy of JNS. Photo credit: Yonatan Sindel/Flash90
A plenum session and a vote on reviving the ultra-Orthodox enlistment bill at the assembly hall of the Knesset, the Israeli parliament in Jerusalem on June 11, 2024
(JNS) — The Knesset plenum voted overwhelmingly on Wednesday in favor of a resolution rejecting the establishment of a Palestinian state.
The resolution, put forward by MK Ze’ev Elkin of the New Hope-National Right party with support from the Yisrael Beiteinu Party and the Land of Israel Caucus, passed by 68 to 9.
The Land of Israel Caucus, the mission of which is to strengthen Israeli control of Judea and Samaria, includes members from Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s right-wing coalition as well as Benny Gantz’s centrist National Unity Party.
The caucus is co-chaired by MKs Simcha Rothman, Yuli Edelstein and Limor Son Har Melech.
Other co-sponsors of the resolution included Likud, Shas, Religious Zionism, Otzma Yehudit and United Torah Judaism.
“The Israeli Knesset opposes the establishment of a Palestinian state on any piece of land west of the Jordan River. The existence of a Palestinian state in the heart of Israel will pose an existential threat to the State of Israel and its citizens, will further extend the Israel-Palestinian Arab conflict and be a source of destabilization for the entire region,” the resolution states.
“It will be only a matter of time before Hamas takes over such a Palestinian state and turns it into a base for radical Islamic terrorism in full alignment with the Iranian regime that aims to eradicate the State of Israel,” it continues.
The motion concludes: “Supporting Palestinian statehood at this time would reward terrorism and serve to encourage Hamas and its supporters. Israel’s enemies will interpret it as the victorious outcome of the massacre perpetrated on Oct. 7 and a precursor to the conquest by jihadist Islamism of the entire Middle East.”
National Unity issued a statement after the resolution passed explaining why they supported it.
“After Oct. 7, the appalling day that terrorists kidnapped, murdered and raped our citizens, any recognition of a Palestinian state would be a reward for terrorism and Hamas,” the party said.
Lawmakers also rejected a proposal by the United Arab List-Ra’am to recognize a Palestinian state, and Hadash-Ta’al’s proposal to recognize a Palestinian state with eastern Jerusalem as its capital. The resolution failed to pass, with 62 against and nine in favor.
The Knesset plenum in February voted 99-11 to back the government’s decision to reject any unilateral recognition of Palestinian statehood.
All coalition lawmakers and most members of the opposition Yesh Atid, National Unity and Yisrael Beiteinu parties voted in favor of supporting the Cabinet statement against “international diktats regarding a permanent settlement with the Palestinians.”
The Labor Party boycotted the vote and its members were not in attendance. The Arab parties voted against the measure.
The Knesset vote comes a week before Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is scheduled to address a joint session of the U.S. Congress.
Netanyahu’s speech will mark the fourth time the Israeli premier has addressed the U.S. governing bodies, a record for a foreign leader. His last address was on March 3, 2015.
Jerusalem’s stance against Palestinian statehood could further complicate relations with the Democratic Party, which on Tuesday advanced a platform that includes support for a Palestinian state, saying that a ceasefire proposal backed by President Joe Biden “would create the conditions for a better future for the Palestinian people, one of self-determination, dignity, security, and freedom, and ultimately a state of their own —a contrast to [former president Donald] Trump, who refuses to endorse the political aspirations of the Palestinian people.”
In contrast, the Republican Party platform published at the start of this week’s nominating convention in Milwaukee simply states that “We will stand with Israel, and seek peace in the Middle East.”
In an interview with JNS the day after the vote, Rothman, from the Religious Zionism Party, said that the resolution represents the Israeli consensus and gives national backing to Netanyahu as he prepares to travel to Washington to make Israel’s case regarding its war against Hamas terrorists in Gaza.
“The reason for this vote and declaration is that we know that there is a tremendous amount of pressure applied on Israel and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, especially with him traveling to the United States next week,” said Rothman.
“This resolution will help Netanyahu say outside of Israel the truth, which is that first, a Palestinian state is a danger to the core existence of the State of Israel,” he added.
“A Palestinian state is also dangerous for the rest of the world as well as it is a foothold for Iran and regional terror groups in the entire world,” he said.
“Having a Palestinian state on the land of Israel is immoral and finally, those views are not personal views of Netanyahu, they are not fringe views of a small group. These views, those simple truths, are shared by a consensus in Israeli society,” Rothman continued.
On Feb. 1, Biden issued Executive Order 14115, sanctioning “persons undermining peace, security and stability in the West Bank.” The order cited “high levels of extremist settler violence, forced displacement of people and villages and property destruction.”
Last week, the U.S. Treasury Department sanctioned five Israeli entities and three people for what it said was support of acts of “violent extremism” in Judea and Samaria.
“This resolution means that when the Biden administration pushes forward sanctioning people against a Palestinian state or against the two-state solution, they are basically sanctioning the State of Israel,” said Rothman.
“They may be picking on some individual or entity, but in reality they are sanctioning the state of Israel because the objection to a two-state solution is a consensus in Israel,” he added.
“These sanctions besides being immoral are not a way to treat an ally,” he added. “Israel opposes the two-state solution. Sanctioning Israelis for views that their elected representatives and the vast majority and consensus of Israelis hold is not a way to treat an ally,” he concluded.
Nabil Abu Rudeineh, spokesperson for Palestinian Authority chief Mahmoud Abbas, on Thursday slammed the resolution rejecting Palestinian statehood.
“There is no peace or security for anyone without the establishment of a Palestinian state in accordance with international legitimacy,” he said, adding that “terrorism is Israel, that launches a continuous aggression to kill children, women and the elderly,” according to the P.A.’s official Wafa news agency.
Abu Rudeineh noted that 149 United Nations member states recognize the “State of Palestine” and that it had observer status at the international body, where its flag flies.
He claimed that Israel’s ruling coalition is pushing “the entire region into the abyss,” and accused the United States of “bias and unlimited support” for the Jewish state.
The P.A. official said that peace will only be achieved with the establishment of a Palestinian state in the 1967 borders with eastern Jerusalem as its capital.
Hussein al-Sheikh, secretary general of the executive committee of the P.L.O. and a top aide to Abbas, tweeted that the vote “confirms the racism of the occupying state and its disregard for international law and international legitimacy, and its insistence on the approach and policy of perpetuating the occupation forever and the absence of a partner for achieving peace on the Israeli side and undermining all signed agreements.”
Al-Sheikh called on more countries to recognize Palestine as a state in response to the Knesset decision “to protect the two-state solution,” and for “Arab brothers to respond appropriately to this dangerous decision.”
“We affirm that the Palestinian state is what remains, and that the occupation is going to disappear and will leave sooner or later,” he concluded.
