July 1st was a date some Israelis were looking forward to. For the past few months, most Israelis have been speaking about one thing, (well, except for coronavirus) - annexation, AKA applying Israeli law in much of Judea and Samaria.
Since the Six Day War in 1967 when Israel liberated the area, Israeli citizens have been living there in "settlements" under military rule. Annexation would change that permanently, and settlers would cease to be settlers. They would be living, de facto, in the State of Israel .
Of course, in Israel, nothing’s ever that simple. This plan split the country in two - those who prayed for annexation, and those who dreaded it.
Uri Zaki is a political activist, a member of Israel's left-wing Meretz party.
He is the founder of “The Front for the Protection of Democracy”, an organization that strives to be “the assaultive tool in the struggle for the Israeli democracy”.