Netanyahu: ‘Mapping’ sovereignty in Judea and Samaria has begun

“We have formed an Israeli team to work with the American team on the work of mapping, which has already begun – it is underway,” said Netanyahu.

By JNS and World Israel News Staff 

The joint U.S.-Israel committee tasked with mapping the areas to which Israel will extend its sovereignty in Judea and Samaria under the Trump peace plan has started working, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said at the weekly Israeli cabinet meeting on Sunday.

“In recent weeks, we brought enormous news for the State of Israel and the Land of Israel. My friend, President Trump clearly stated that he would recognize Israeli sovereignty over the Jordan Valley, the northern Dead Sea, and all Jewish communities in Judea and Samaria, as well as a broad area encompassing them,” Netanyahu said.

“We have formed an Israeli team to work with the American team on the work of mapping, which has already begun – it is underway,” the prime minister added.

A senior official in the U.S. administration confirmed to Israel Hayom that President Donald Trump has appointed to the committee U.S. Ambassador to Israel David Friedman, Friedman’s senior adviser Aryeh Lightstone, and Scott Leith, director of Israeli and Palestinian affairs at the National Security Council.

The appointments were announced a day after Israel revealed its own appointments to the committee: Tourism Minister Yariv Levin, Israeli Ambassador to the U.S. Ron Dermer, and Ronen Peretz, director of the Prime Minister’s Office.

The joint committee, which was announced by Trump during the rollout of his peace plan at the White House several weeks ago, was tasked with drawing a map of the specific areas that will come under Israeli sovereignty in the Jordan Valley, as well as in Judea and Samaria, under the plan.

U.S. and Israeli sources said immediately after the release of the plan’s details that the map it included was only conceptual and did not reflect the exact future borders. The map is also called a conceptual map in the plan itself.