A major Sovereignty Movement convention was held in Jerusalem on Thursday, June 8, with the participation of hundreds of attendees. Minister Strook: “The Jordan Valley is the most important place to apply sovereignty.”

The Sovereignty Movement’s demand to implement Israeli sovereignty over the Jordan Valley as a first priority enjoys broad coalition support. This comes after earlier this week (on Monday), the heads of the Sovereignty Movement, Yehudit Katsover and Nadia Matar, called upon coalition leaders in a letter to continue to the next step after the return to Homesh: the application of sovereignty over the Jordan Valley.

“This is a unique opportunity that may not come again,” wrote the leaders of the Sovereignty Movement in their letter to the coalition leaders.

Justice Minister, Yariv Levin (Likud), expressed support for the Sovereignty Movement, saying, "The Land of Israel was, is and will forever belong to the people of Israel, as its name says. I am convinced that the joint effort we have made for years to promote and strengthen our hold on the land and to responsibly apply Israeli law throughout the Land of Israel will ultimately produce results."

Transportation Minister, Miri Regev (Likud), also joined in supporting the advocates of sovereignty and said, "There can be no doubt about the importance of the Jordan Valley in security, geo-political and diplomatic terms. We have a shared mission to implement sovereignty in the Jordan Valley and in Judea and Samaria, and with God's help, we will do it and succeed."

Her fellow Likud minister, Mickey Zohar, added, "The Jordan Valley is a strategically important area with uniquely beautiful landscapes that we must develop and strengthen. If we want to completely do away with the idea of a Palestinian state, the Jordan Valley is the key. I am proud of you for what you are doing, for the discussions and ideology. With God's help, we will continue to work together and safeguard the Land of Israel, the people of Israel and the Torah of Israel."

Minister of Settlement and National Missions Orit Strook (Religious Zionism) also joined in the support for sovereignty in the Jordan Valley: "The Jordan Valley is the most important place where sovereignty should be applied since it essentially locks our eastern border. That is why your conference and your activities are so important. I want you to know that our government has put sovereignty on its agenda, sovereignty is part of the government’s official tenets and declared policy, it is part of the national plan to achieve a situation where it will be politically feasible, and there is an excellent chance that we are on the path to such a goal."

MK Danny Danon (Likud) says, “It is incumbent upon all of us to strive to apply sovereignty now, first of all in the Jordan Valley, and then in other parts of Judea and Samaria. You will often hear people who say, ‘It isn't the right time,' 'It's not realistic.' But that’s what they said to those who established our country too. I say to you – this is the right time and it is realistic. We will fight to pass the law to apply sovereignty over the Jordan Valley, and with God’s help, it will happen very soon. We all love the Jordan Valley, we hike in it, and we understand its strategic importance. You will be surprised to hear that many people in Israel and the Jewish world are convinced that the Jordan Valley is already part of the sovereign State of Israel, and that sovereignty has already been applied to it, just like in the Golan Heights. We will fix that."

According to MK Zvi Sukkot (Religious Zionism), who also supports the Sovereignty Movement’s demands, “It has been 56 years since the Six-Day War, and the war is still not over. Israel is still afraid to determine the reality on the ground, to solidify the facts on the ground and to declare in no uncertain terms that the Land of Israel is the homeland of the Jewish people – in Shechem, in Shiloh, in Hebron, in Jerusalem. And there should be Jewish sovereignty n all those places. That is why we returned to this land, that is what we dreamed about for 2,000 years and there is no logical reason why it has been dragged out for 56 years. With God’s help, we will make it happen.”

MK Ariel Kallner (Likud) added, "The application of sovereignty in the Jordan Valley is the order of the day. It is the right thing to do in strategic terms, it is the right thing to do in security terms, it will prevent any chance of a Palestinian state being established and there's no demographic problem in the Jordan Valley. In every respect, sovereignty should be applied in the Jordan Valley, and the sooner the better. The application of sovereignty in the Jordan Valley is a must.”

MK Moshe Passal (Likud) added, “The time has come to apply sovereignty, first of all in the Jordan Valley, and then in Judea and Samaria. Just as the Golan Heights is an area that enjoys a broad consensus, and it is clear to us that it must remain in Israel’s hands, so too the Jordan Valley. It is clear that the time has come to apply sovereignty in the Jordan Valley."

MK Dan Illouz (Likud) also expressed his support this week for sovereignty: “As a government that champions the cause of right-wing values, we need to ensure that by the end of this Knesset term, we will see progress on the matter of the application of sovereignty, of the normalization of Judea and Samaria in the long term. Everything that is currently being discussed – long-term planning, absurdly excessive red-tape, enforcement against illegal construction – all of this will disappear once there is true sovereignty in Judea and Samaria, and that is what I am striving for."

As noted, the statements of the coalition ministers and Knesset members came in wake of a letter sent by the leaders of the Sovereignty Movement to the heads of the coalition parties. In their letter, Katsover and Matar congratulated the leaders of the coalition factions for passing the budget law and approving the return to Homesh. They called upon the coalition, “Now is the time to take the obvious next step: to immediately apply sovereignty, first in the Jordan Valley and then in all of Judea and Samaria.” Katsover and Matar explained the unique window of opportunity: “The vision of sovereignty enjoys extensive support in this government, in the coalition and even among opposition Knesset members. This is a unique opportunity that may not come again, now that we have a full-fledged right-wing government that supports sovereignty in power, and with additional supporters of sovereignty even among the opposition ranks."

It should be noted that as part of the increased pressure for the application of sovereignty, the Sovereignty Movement held a large conference entitled “Sovereignty in the Jordan Valley First” at the Ramada Hotel in Jerusalem on Thursday afternoon (June 8). The conference, which was attended by Knesset members, rabbis, public figures and hundreds of participants, discussed the promotion of sovereignty and called for it to be applied immediately.