In response to a landmark poll showing a vast majority of Israelis want to see the city of Maale Adumim that is located east of Jerusalem annexed, a Likud Minister has spoken up and called for the annexation to be carried out.
The Midgam poll on Tuesday found that a whopping 78% of Israeli Jews favor annexation even without a final status agreement with the Palestinian Authority, along the lines of the 1981 annexation of the Golan Heights. Both were liberated in the 1967 Six Day War.
Welfare Minister Chaim Katz (Likud), who is the chairperson of the Likud central committee, added his voice to the poll results on Wednesday.
"Upon reaching 49 years, and entering the jubilee year of the liberation of Judea and Samaria, I too am among the 78% of the Israeli public that supports implementing Israeli sovereignty on Maale Adumim first," said Katz.
"In Judea and Samaria over 400,000 citizens of Israel live as emissaries of the state of Israel, for whom the courts and laws of Israel do not apply but rather military legislation. We must implement the law of Israel on them as well."
Addressing the city to the east of the capital, Katz added, "the city of Maale Adumim, with its 40,000 residents, is a matter of consensus crossing party lines, and I support implementing Israeli sovereignty on it quickly."
Despite Katz's remarks, not only has the government for years neglected implementing sovereignty, but it has indeed been imposing a near total Jewish building freeze on Judea and Samaria since 2013.