Knesset mulls law to block establishment of a Palestinian state

An 80-MK majority or 61 MKs and a national referendum would be needed to give up land or any Israeli territorial waters.

By Batya Jerenberg, World Israel News

The Land of Israel lobby in the Knesset is proposing a new bill for consideration by the Constitution, Law, and Justice Committee to help prevent the establishment of a Palestinian state.

The law, in the form of an amendment to the Referendum Law, would require either a supermajority of 80 MKs to approve the transfer of territory or an absolute majority of 61 of the 120 legislators plus a public referendum.

Lobby heads MKs Yuli Edelstein (Likud), Limor Son Har-Malech (Otzma Yehudit), and Simcha Rotman (Religious Zionism) wrote a letter to the committee, which Rotman heads, explaining their reasoning.

“There is broad agreement in Israeli society and in the Knesset that a Palestinian state should not be established,” they noted. “On our initiative, the Knesset voted on a declaration against a Palestinian state by a large majority. The law that is being promoted is the practical expression of the Knesset’s decision.”

In July, the Knesset voted 68-9 on a resolution saying that such a state “in the heart of the Land of Israel will pose an existential danger to the State of Israel and its citizens, perpetuate the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, and destabilize the region,” as it would soon be taken over by Hamas and turned into “a radical Islamic terror base.”

“After October 7, the State of Israel will not allow terrorist groups to establish themselves on its borders and endanger the security of its citizens,” the letter continues. “The Israel Security Law amends the Referendum Law, and brings all areas of the historic Land of Israel and territorial waters within the scope of the law.”

“We consider this amendment important and essential at this time and request that the discussion be scheduled as soon as possible,” they wrote.

Judea and Samaria, the region that Israel liberated in the 1967 Six-Day War and which the Palestinians covet for their state, was a large part of the ancient kingdoms of Judea and Israel.

The inclusion of Israel’s territorial waters in the terms is a reaction to the 2022 agreement demarcating the maritime boundaries between Israel and Lebanon that was approved solely by the cabinet of then-caretaker prime minister Yair Lapid.

In the deal, which each side signed with the United States and not with each other, as they are technically still at war, Israel ceded hundreds of kilometers of disputed sea.

According to the opposition at the time, Israel also gave up several kilometers of its actual territorial waters, a claim that Lapid denied, saying that only maritime territory in Israel’s economic sphere was included, not sovereign waters, and thus a national referendum or Knesset approval was unnecessary.

Attorney General Gali Baharav-Miara had ruled that the only legal requirement was a nonbinding review of the agreement by the Knesset.

In all, 26 MKs signed onto the bill, including some from the ultra-Orthodox Shas and United Torah Judaism parties and a few members of the Israel Beiteinu and National Unity parties, which were in the opposition.

In 2018, the Knesset passed a similar law requiring a supermajority regarding giving up any part of Jerusalem.

The “United Jerusalem” amendment to the Basic Law: Jerusalem, Capital of Israel, states that 80 MKs must approve any government decision that includes the transfer of any part of the city to “a foreign political or governing power…or foreign authority” or changes its status in any way.

In all negotiations with the Palestinians regarding a “two-state solution,” the PA has demanded that eastern Jerusalem be transformed into the capital of their desired country.