Former Minister Yossi Beilin referred in an article published by Israel Hayom to statements of Zionist Union Chairman Avi Gabbay, according to which Gabbay is not at all certain that Judea and Samaria communities need to evicted as part of a future diplomatic agreement.

Beilin agreed, asserting that “settlements” ought to remain under the sovereignty and responsibility of the “Palestinian state” he says ought to be established.

“The Chairman of the Labor party, Avi Gabbay, is correct in his statements about the future of the settlements,” he wrote. “I really hope that if he merits to hold negotiations with the PLO, he will make clear that the settlers who want to should be allowed to continue to live in their homes as citizens of Israel and residents of Palestine, and will respect the laws of the Palestinian state that is established.”

According to Beilin, the significance of Gabbay’s statements is that the presence of “settlers” and their communities ought not be an obstacle to political negotiations with the PA, as he claims they have been until now. “Gabbay is telling settlers something similar: Israel's strategic consideration of not becoming an apartheid state, Heaven forbid, will prevent you from forcing [your will on] the majority of Israel, which supports the two-state solution. But since you settled (usually aided in advance, or retroactively, by the state) many places in the West Bank, you can, if you wish, stay there, with the consent of the Palestinian state, without Israeli law applying to you. The evacuation of hundreds of thousands of Israelis will not take place, and you will not succeed in torpedoing any agreement. "

Beilin noted that in the agreements he reached with Abbas, what came to be known as the “Beilin-Abu Mazen agreement” was agreed upon in a similar vein. In this agreement, he wrote, "It was noted that all Israeli settlements in the Gaza Strip would be evacuated and all Israeli settlements in the West Bank would remain in place. The person who headed the Palestinian negotiating team during the years in which the negotiations took place, Ahmed Qureia (Abu Ala), former Palestinian Prime Minister, said publicly at an appearance at the Tel Aviv Fairgrounds that he was prepared for all the settlements to remain, and that Israelis who wanted to continue to live in them within a Palestinian state would be allowed to do so. So it’s worthwhile to pay attention to what Gabbay says.”