Smotrich
SmotrichFlash 90

Responses poured in following the US State Department's noticeable omission of reference to Israeli "occupation" with respect to the Golan, Judea and Samaria, and Gaza in its Human Rights Reports.

National Union party leader Bezalel Smotrich demanded that Prime Minister Netanyahu apply Israeli sovereignty in Judea and Samaria following the publication of the 2018 Human Rights Reports by the US State Department Wednesday.

"Mr. Prime Minister, the excuses are over. It's time for sovereignty." Smotrich wrote following the publication of the report.

"For years the State of Israel has been dealing with this lie, which is called occupation. A lie which is based on false and anti-Israeli assumptions. A lie that we demand be uprooted. The people of Israel and the Land of Israel have been intertwined since the dawn of history, every other description is simply a lie," he said.

"This US State Department announcement opened a window of opportunity to be used. The Israeli public has long understood our right to the land and straightened to the right. Who knows, Mr. Prime Minister, if it was not for this moment that you assumed office. You will receive full backing from the vast majority of the Israeli public. It's time for sovereignty."

The United Right-Wing list including the Jewish Home, National Union, and Otzma Yehudit parties praised the State Department report.

"We congratulate President Trump on the historic recognition of the sovereignty of the State of Israel on the Golan Heights alongside the clear statement that there is no occupier in his country in Judea and Samaria," the statement read.

"However, this statement should not blind us. When Trump's 'deal of the century' is placed on the table, the members of the Union of the Right-wing parties will be the only ones who will be truly committed to ensuring that we do not give up our homeland and uproot settlements and thousands of families from their homes."

Chairman of the list and of the Jewish Home party Rabbi Rafi Peretz stated, "Now it is clear: The US State Dept. is heating up the engines ahead of the publication of the Trump plan that will bring the rain of Qassams onto Kfar Saba."

"Only the results of the elections will determine the level of the price that settlements in Judea and Samaria will pay. There must be a large and strong United Right-Wing list to prevent the danger."

Professor Eugene Kontorovich, Director of International Law at the Jerusalem-based Kohelet Policy Forum, said, "This year's report for the first time does not use the inaccurate legal description 'occupation' to refer to Israel's presence in the West Bank or Golan. This is a massive change in how America relates to the conflict. It is coming to understand that while Israel and the Palestinians have a dispute, international law does not provide the answers to that dispute. The report also for the first time expresses skepticism at the claims and submissions of anti-Israel groups, whose poorly documented allegations had previously been accepted as gospel."

Efrat mayor Oded Revivi: "The change of how the US officially refers to the Golan Heights is a welcome and courageous act by the US Administration that has consistently resisted the standard international consensus when it diverged with reality just like the US government's recognition of Jerusalem as the capital of Israel."

Shlomo Ne'eman, Head of the Gush Etzion Regional Council, praised the move, saying:

"The world’s greatest and most important superpower understands what the left in Israel is finding difficult to accept: In the Six Day War, we liberated our homeland from the Arab occupation, and not the other way around.”

Ne’eman added, “We all expect that a right-wing government, which will be formed after the elections, will recognize this reality by applying sovereignty and not giving our enemies any hope.”