Some 63 Members of Knesset demanded in a letter to Knesset Speaker MK Amir Ohana (Likud) on Thursday to hold a declaratory debate and vote over opposition to Palestinian statehood.
The letter was initiated by the leaders of the Knesset’s Land of Israel Caucus, MKs Yuli Edelstein (Likud), Simcha Rothman (Religious Zionist Party), and Limor Son Harmelech (Otzma Yehudit). It included signatories from eight different parties: the coalition’s Likud, Shas, United Torah Judaism, Religious Zionist Party, and Otzma Yehudit, and the opposition’s United Right, National Unity, and Yisrael Beytenu.
The text of the proposal for the plenum to vote on was as follows.
“The Israeli Knesset categorically opposes founding a Palestinian state west of the Jordan (river). Founding a Palestinian state in the heart of the Land of Israel will be an existential threat to the state of Israel and its citizens, perpetuate the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, and destabilize the region. It will only be a short matter of time until Hamas takes over the Palestinian state and turns it into a base of radical Islamic terror, acting in coordination with the Axis led by Iran, to wipe out the state of Israel.
Prize for Palestinian terrorism?
“Promoting the idea of a Palestinian state at this time will be a prize for terror and only encourage Hamas and its followers, who will view it as a victory stemming from the October 7, 2023 massacre, and a precursor for the takeover of the middle east by Jihadist Islam.”
In a statement accompanying the letter’s publication, its initiators wrote, “A moment before the prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, travels to Congress, the members of the caucus wish to stand by him as an all-Israeli impenetrable wall, against dangerous attempts by those states who wish to give a backwind to terror, in the form of a Palestinian terror state in the heart of the Land of Israel.”
The 63 signatories are a majority of the 120-member Knesset and include prominent opposition members, including United Right chairman MK Gideon Sa’ar and National Unity MKs Michael Biton and Pnina Tameno-Shete.