Yoav Kish
Yoav KishArutz Sheva

MKs Yoav Kish (Likud) and Bezael Smotrich (Jewish Home), the Chairmen of the Knesset Land of Israel Lobby, agreed to postpone the vote to extend Israeli sovereignty over Ma'aleh Adumim by one week.

The Ministerial Committee on Legislation was due to vote on Sunday on a bill to extend sovereignty over Ma'aleh Adumim, but the Prime Minister apparently attempted to delay the passage of the bill in order to coordinate the move with the Trump Administration, and asked that the vote be delayed.

Ma'aleh Adumim Mayor Benny Kashriel praised the bill yesterday, but voiced reservations about the delay. "This is a significant [development] in the historical struggle for Israel's security and the integrity of Jerusalem. As we [applied sovereignty] in the Golan and in Jerusalem, so it is for Ma'aleh Adumim and we must therefore apply total sovereignty. There is no such thing as [waiting] until the time is right."

Deputy Foreign Minister Tzipi Hotovely, speaking at the fourth annual Women in Green Sovereignty Conference in Jerusalem last month, said:

"In the years during which we did not dare to apply sovereignty we lost. We lost justice, truth, the Israeli story. In the years during which 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 [for the citizens] in Israel. Anyone who does not believe in the right to settle in Shilo, Beit El and Eli has no business living in Tel Aviv, Herzliya and Rishon Lezion."

Hotovely called for Israel to gradually apply sovereignty over Judea and Samaria. "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 applying sovereignty from the sea to the river (i.e.the Mediterranean to the Jordan, ed.), but doing so requires unity, not contests over who is more right-wing."