Israeli cabinet votes to approve Jewish town in Jordan valley

The cabinet approved the Jordan Valley community of Mevo’ot Yeriho , which had been considered prior to then an unauthorized settlement outpost.

By World Israel News Staff

Israel’s cabinet, at its weekly meeting on Sunday, approved Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s proposal to establish the community of Mevo’ot Yeriho. The cabinet meeting was held in the region of the settlement, which started as a farming community in the 1990s.

The settlement, designated prior to the cabinet approval as an unauthorized settlement outpost, can now develop freely and independently.

“We will apply sovereignty in the Jordan Valley and the Northern Dead Sea as soon as the next government is established in the next Knesset. I have appointed a work team headed by the director of the Prime Minister’s Office, which will formulate an outline for applying sovereignty,” Netanyahu said at the cabinet meeting.

“Applying Israeli sovereignty to all our communities in Judea and Samaria, including the blocs and the territory outside the blocs, and other areas that are essential for our security and our heritage – these things will come up in the ‘Deal of the Century’ plan, which will come very soon after the elections,” he said.

Netanyahu announced his plan to authorize the settlement last week, a day after he announced his intention to immediately extend Israeli sovereignty over the Jordan Valley and northern Dead Sea area should he be re-elected.

Attorney General Avichai Mandelblit had opposed a vote on the settlement due to the limits set on transitional governments by the Supreme Court.

When he requested the reason why the vote needed to be taken immediately, Netanyahu said that it was crucial to clarify the legal status of the community before the Trump administration released its Mideast peace plan, expected to happen immediately after the elections.

Mandelblit withdrew his opposition to the cabinet vote after Netanyahu’s explanation.