The Binyamin Regional Council continued its efforts Tuesday to lobby against the Trump administration’s Middle East peace plan and the application of Israeli sovereignty over parts of Judea and Samaria in accordance with the plan.
The council hosted a tour of the Binyamin region with journalists Tuesday, during which council leaders highlighted the dangers they say the Trump plan would present to the settlement enterprise, emphasizing their opposition to the establishment of a Palestinian state and the creation of isolated Israeli enclaves surrounded by Palestinian territory.
“We want sovereignty,” said Binyamin Regional Council chief Yisrael Gantz. “And the Prime Minister declared that he would apply it on all of Judea and Samaria. Of course we have our red lines: We won’t accept the creation of isolated enclaves and we won’t accept a [building] freeze,” referring the Trump peace plan’s proposal that 15 Israeli towns in Judea and Samaria be placed under Israeli sovereignty, but as enclaves isolated from the rest of Israel. In those enclaves, expansion would be prohibited for four years, while the door is left open for final status talks with the Palestinian Authority.
“A town which has been designated as an enclave has basically been placed under an existential threat,” continued Gantz.
Gantz rejected criticism by senior Likud officials, who recently excoriated settlement leaders who oppose the sovereignty plan as “crazy”. The Likud officials also claimed the opponents of the plan were presenting false information regarding its details.
“There’s no truth in this at all. There is no one in the settlement movement who wants sovereignty more than us. But as people responsible for our residents, we are putting conditions to ensure that our towns aren’t harmed.”