Coalition Chairman MK Ze'ev Elkin (Likud) on Sunday praised government approval of a measure that would extend Israeli legal jurisdiction to Jewish towns in Judea and Samaria. Among the laws that would apply in Judea and Samaria if the measure is passed are those requiring workers to receive sick pay, minimum wage laws, and other workplace-related measures.
“I am very happy the ministers understand the simple fact that hundreds of thousands of Israelis deserve legal protection just as the rest of Israelis do,” Elkin said. “It's a shame that our Justice Minister, who eternally trumpets the need for equality before the law, does not understand this.”
Justice Minister Tzipi Livni was indeed one of the chief opponents of the measure, which would extend legal protection to Israelis and Palestinian Authority Arabs working for Israeli businesses in Judea and Samaria. The workers would have legal redress to sue employers in Israeli courts; currently, the only legal recourse for residents of Judea and Samaria, and for PA Arabs, are the panels run by the Civil Administration, the military body that administers the area.
Livni, Elkin said, should be expected to be the first to support such a law. “Unfortunately her support for civil rights apparently ends at the gates of Maale Adumim and Ariel,” he added.
Livni voted against the bill, along with ministers Yael German, Yaakov Peri, and Yair Lapid. It was supported by all Likud and Jewish Home ministers, except for Education and Sport Minister Limor Livnat, who abstained along with Minister of Public Security Yitzchak Aharonovich.
The law was proposed by MKs Orit Struk (Jewish Home) and Yariv Levin (Likud). Commenting on the law's approval, MKs Struk and Levin said that it was “an important decision that will help prevent outright cases of discrimination against residents of Judea and Samaria. We hope that the government will unite and support the law when it comes up for a Knesset vote. We also expect ministers who, even if they do not support the settlement enterprise, do support economic fairness, to stand behind this bill.”