Posted on 07/28/21
| News Source: Arutz-7
The Knesset voted Wednesday afternoon to reject a bill which would apply Israeli sovereignty over parts of Judea and Samaria.
The bill was introduced by Likud MK Mikki Zohar, along with cosponsor MK Shlomo Karhi (Likud).
In the preliminary vote in the Knesset plenum, the bill was rejected, with 50 MKs voting in favor and 64 against.
The Bennett government voted against the bill, ensuring its failure in the plenum.
Zohar excoriated the government for voting down the bill, calling the coalition an “evil, left-wing” government, and lambasted it as “opportunistic”.
“This bill will once again show and reveal who is ideological in this Knesset, who believes in their path, and who is just an opportunist and who seeks positions for himself and his friends.”
“I understand and can accept it when [United Arab List chief] Mansour Abbas and UAL vote against the law, but when the right-wingers in this government vote against the law, they will prove to the public once more that they came to the Knesset for jobs, for positions, for opportunism, not because of ideology or any values.”
The government response was offered by Justice Minister Gideon Sa’ar (New Hope).
“I heard MK Mikki Zohar relating to the fact that in the last administration, Netanyahu wanted to apply sovereignty but Blue and White prevented him from doing so. And I was just thinking to myself, ‘How far from the truth can you get?’ In the coalition agreement between the Likud and Blue and White, which I voted on along with you in the previous Knesset, which Netanyahu highlighted, and justifiably, that it included a major concession [from Blue and White] that regardless of the details of their veto power, the one thing that would be off limits is the issue of sovereignty, and that [Netanyahu] can bring the application sovereignty to the Cabinet and government and Knesset approval after July 1st, 2020.”
“The agreement also included a clause which allowed the Prime Minister to bring the [sovereignty] bill to the Knesset as a private MK’s bill, so long as it was through a Likud MK. So you, MK Zohar, party whip for the Likud in the last Knesset, could have brought this bill up in the last Netanyahu government, during the Trump administration, during the amazing window of opportunity – you could have submitted the sovereignty bill and had a majority in the Knesset.”