Knesset may require referendum for West Bank settlement withdrawal

• Date: 06 December 2020
• Author: TOVAH LAZAROFF
• Published date: 06 December 2020
• Publication title: Jerusalem Post, The: Web Edition Articles (Israel)

'I intend to bring forward this bill this week," said MK Tzvi Hauser (Derech Eretz) who chairs the Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee.

The private members bill was filed with the Knesset in August and can be brought forward at this juncture if Hauser should so choose.

If approved, it would still need to pass three readings before becoming law.

The proposed legislation would extend the 2014 Knesset basic law that requires a public referendum or approval of 80 parliamentarians for any Israeli withdrawal from territory in Jerusalem or the Golan Heights.

Hauser's bill would make the same step necessary should Israel decide to evacuate any of the 130 West Bank settlements where 450,000 settlers live.

US President Donald Trump's peace plan to resolve the Israeli Palestinian conflict had allowed for Israel to eventually annex up to 30% of the West Bank.

That annexation was suspended in exchange for Israel's normalization deals with the United Arab Emirates and Bahrain.

In the aftermath of the suspension, right-wing legislators such as Hauser, immediately sought to strategize ways to protect Area C of the West Bank where all the settlements are located, including use of a referendum.

Trump's election defeat and the possibility that Israel could be heading to its fourth election, has pushed Hauser to act now on the bill, even in advance of clear coalition support.

"Given the government's decision to freeze preparations to apply Israeli law in Judea and Samaria; the Basic Law Referendum must be urgently amended so that it also applies fully and immediately to the communities of Judea and Samaria," said Hauser, whose party is part of the government coalition.

The coalition has yet to decide if it plans to support the bill, according to the spokesperson for its chairman MK Miki Zohar (Likud). Opposition parties Yisrael Beytenu and Yamina have already stated they would vote in favor of the referendum bill.

Hauser noted that the bill was consistent...