President Donald Trump and Binyamin Netanyahu at Ben Gurion Airport
President Donald Trump and Binyamin Netanyahu at Ben Gurion AirportFLASH90

Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu clarified Israel’s position regarding the future of Jewish communities in Judea and Samaria under a potential final status agreement with the Palestinian Authority, telling senior Trump administration officials that Jewish communities outside of the major blocs must remain under sovereign Israeli control.

According to a report by the Haaretz daily on Sunday, the Israeli Prime Minister told senior Trump administration officials that Israel would not accept the evacuation of tens of thousands of Jews living outside of the major “settlement blocs” likely to be annexed under a possible final status agreement with the Palestinian Authority.

While most of the some 450,000 Jews living in Judea and Samaria would likely see their communities brought under Israeli sovereignty even in a final status agreement which provides for the creation of a Palestinian state, a significant minority live outside of the large blocs close to the Green Line. Past proposals for a two-state solution have suggested either expelling those Jews from their homes and demolishing their communities, or allowing them to be incorporated into a new Palestinian state.

Now, however, according to the Haaretz report, Netanyahu is pushing for Israel to not only leave the communities outside of the major blocs intact, but to retain Israeli control over “enclaves” of Jewish population centers surrounded by a future Palestinian state.

Netanyahu has pushed the issue during talks with Trump administration officials over the past few months, the report claims, including during US Ambassador to the United Nations Nikki Haley’s trip to Israel last week.

The Prime Minister reportedly told the ambassador that he is interested in pursuing a final status agreement that would allow all Jews now living in Judea and Samaria to remain in their homes.

According to Deputy Foreign Minister Tzipi Hotovely (Likud), who was present during the Haley-Netanyahu meeting, the Prime Minister is pushing a model based upon the border arrangement between the Netherlands and Belgium, where cross-border enclaves are maintained.