Israeli lawmaker defies UN: As of now, ‘occupation’ is permanent

“I didn’t expect anyone at the UN to lift a finger to help the State of Israel,” says Otzma Yehudit MK.

By World Israel News Staff

Following a vote at the United Nations General Assembly on Friday requesting a legal opinion from the International Court of Justice (ICJ) at The Hague on the so-called “occupied territories,” Otzma Yehudit MK Zvika Fogel asserted that, “As of this moment, the occupation is permanent.”

Eighty-seven UN members voted in favor of forwarding the request to the ICJ, with 26 voting against and 53 abstentions. The wording of the request asks the ICJ to give its advisory opinion on the legal consequences of Israel’s “occupation, settlement, and annexation … including measures aimed at altering the demographic composition, character, and status of the Holy City of Jerusalem, and from its adoption of related discriminatory legislation and measures.”

Israel has not annexed any of the areas it captured during the Six-Day War, and the UN request to the ICJ seeks a clarification on whether the “occupation” is to be regarded as a temporary situation that Israel intends to resolve in final-status negotiations, or whether the situation is de facto annexation.

“I very much hope that Israel will understand how to protect her rights in the areas where we can annex and settle,” Fogel told Radio 103FM on Sunday. “I don’t expect anyone at the United Nations to lift a finger to help the State of Israel.

“I want to continue to legally annex everywhere I can,” he continued, “in order to exercise sovereignty over all the legally held territories in the state. I can’t fight facts, but as of this moment, the occupation is permanent.”

Fogel, a first-time Knesset member for the Otzma Yehudit party headed by MK Itamar Ben-Gvir, is a former brigadier-general in the IDF who headed the Southern Command, which covers the Gaza area and beyond.

However, it is Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich’s party, Religious Zionism, which is likely to have more influence over the new government’s policy in Judea and Samaria. Smotrich was appointed to the newly created position of minister within the Defense Ministry with authority over the Civil Administration, the de facto government of Judea and Samaria.