Deputy Foreign Minister Tzipi Hotovely (Likud) on Sunday expressed hope that Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu would act to apply gradual sovereignty over Judea and Samaria.
Speaking at Women in Green’s fourth Sovereignty Conference, Hotovely said, "In the years when we did not dare to ask sovereignty we lost. We lost justice, truth, the Israeli story. In the years when we told the world that we can resolve the matter in a compromise because we are a peace loving nation, we did not engage in a struggle for justice in Israel. Anyone who does not believe in the right to settle in Shilo, Beit El and Eli has no business in Tel Aviv, Herzliya and Rishon Lezion.
"We learned the hard way that you cannot divide the country. We uprooted Gush Katif and we received the terrible Gaza which is bad for both Israelis and Palestinians," she continued, adding that during a meeting with Netanyahu last week, she urged him to apply sovereignty.
"It can be done in a gradual manner, starting with the greater Jerusalem area and from there applying Israeli law on the entire settlement enterprise and later to sovereignty from the sea to the Jordan, but doing so requires unity, no contest who is more right-wing," said Hotovely.
"We represent half a million people who want the law which applies to them to be the Israeli law and not the Civil Administration and the military regime. It is the settlers who are really under occupation, and it’s time to end the occupation.”
Hotovely noted that while the Iranian issue is an important one which Netanyahu should discuss during his meeting with President Donald Trump this week, "it is more important to tell the world why we are here, because when we tell our truth, we’ll have stability all around us.”