MK Benny Begin
MK Benny BeginFlash 90

In an interview with Voice of Israel radio, MK Benny Begin (Likud) explained his opposition to proposed legislation intended to normalize the status of Jewish communities in Judea and Samaria now threatened with demolition.

He blamed those behind the bill for trying to grab land and stated that it won’t pass a majority in Knesset.

“There will be great harm to the country if this law passes,” he stated and emphasized that, “because this law people will say that settlements are a land-grab."

Begin stated that there is no danger to the hundreds of thousands of houses in Judea and Samaria as many in government claim.

He explained that these houses are permanent fixtures and will be inhabited indefinitely. He criticized the bill and explained that the state has no right to usurp blame onto the judicial system.

He explained that, “the concept of this bill is bad and serves to harm the permanent and integral settlements in Judea and Samaria.”

Begin emphasized that, “We must find alternate solutions. This isn’t the way.”

In 2013, MK Begin was an active partner in formulating and proposing the Prawer Plan to solve the Bedouin land grab problem in the Negev His suggestions included legalizing a large part of the illegal Bedouin construction retroactively. The plan was amended and then shelved by the Knesset.

The Bedouin land grabs are government land. There are no Arab Palestinians who came forward to claim the land on which Amona is built and which is ruled to be private land. Amona was built on what was originally government land but was handed out as gifts by the Jordanian monarchy who had conquered the area in Israel's War of Independence and was actually an "occupier" with no right to change the land's status. The British Mandate laws which preceded Jordan's occupation stipulated that gifts of government land were dependent on paying taxes and working the land within 10 years, both of which conditions were not demanded by Jordan.