Israel’s president calls for Israeli sovereignty in Judea and Samaria

The president’s remarks were made against a backdrop of significant debate between Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and many of his coalition ministers with regards as to how to proceed with Israeli policy on Judea and Samaria in the era of President Donald Trump.

Rivlin shared what he felt to be some of the ramifications and consequences for Israel in extending sovereignty to Judea and Samaria. “Applying sovereignty to an area gives citizenship to all those living there,” he stressed. “It must be clear: If we extend sovereignty, the law must apply equally to all. There is no separate law for Israelis and for non-Israelis.”

Rivlin also echoed remarks he made a few days ago, in which he criticized the Knesset’s passing of the “Regulation Law,” which prevents the demolition of Jewish homes in Judea and Samaria that are found ex-post facto by Israel’s High Court of Justice to have been built on private land. Instead, the property owners will either receive alternative plots of land or be compensated at a rate of 125% of the value of their property.

“Israel has adopted international law,” he had noted. “It does not allow a country acting accordingly to apply and enforce its laws on territories that are not under its sovereignty. If it does so…it will cause Israel to be seen as an apartheid state, which it is not.”

“International law also applies to us,” Rivlin reiterated on Monday. “The issue of the expropriation of land must be a law enacted by the sovereign, correct and equal for all citizens, and not an extraterritorial law that is applied as needed.”

By: Jonathan Benedek, World Israel News