Israel’s parliament passed a bill that could complicate peace efforts with the Palestinians and Syria by making it very difficult for any government to make territorial withdrawals.
The bill requires a two-thirds Knesset majority to cede land in east Jerusalem to the Palestinians or in the Golan Heights to Syria. Failing that, either withdrawal would become subject to a referendum, and polls show winning public approval would be an uphill battle. It would not affect territorial concessions within the West Bank or the Gaza Strip, which Israel has not annexed.
Chief Palestinian negotiator Saeb Erakat has strongly condemned the law shortly after it passed on Monday night, saying it makes “a mockery of international law, which is not subject to the whims of Israeli public opinion.”
In a statement released shortly after the vote, Erakat said Israel had no right to put any future territorial concessions to a public vote.
“Ending the occupation of our land is not and cannot be dependent on any sort of referendum,” he said.
“Under international law there is a clear and absolute obligation on Israel to withdraw not only from east Jerusalem and the Golan Heights, but from all of the territories that it has occupied since 1967,” he said.
The media in Syria yesterday slammed the move.
The bill — which passed by a 65-33 majority — will have little impact in the short term, since neither deal seems imminent.
However, it reflects growing jitters by hardliners in parliament, especially over US efforts to forge a peace agreement between Israel and the Palestinians.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s own position seems influenced by his need to appease his voter base while preventing the collapse of the peace process, which would anger the Israeli center, alienate the US and risk new violence. On Monday, he voted along with the hardliners.
“Any peace agreement requires national agreement and the bill promises that,” he said in a statement. “The Israeli public is involved, aware and responsible and I trust that when the day comes it will support a peace agreement that answers the national interests and security needs of the state of Israel.”
Israeli governments over the years have wrestled with how to meet Palestinian demands, which would mean giving up control of one of the world’s most coveted historical areas — Jerusalem’s Old City. Now, the referendum bill would make it even more difficult.
By requiring a two-thirds majority, the law raises the bar for passage. It would also mean that only a rightist government — one that could depend on opposition support — could ever reach such a deal.
Writing in the Haaretz newspaper, Zeev Segal said that the legislation was the first time a referendum had been incorporated into Israel’s system of government.
“The Knesset thereby curtailed its own power and supremacy over the one issue it decided to subject to a referendum — ceding control of east Jerusalem and the Golan Heights, territories to which Israeli law has been applied,” he wrote.
Ariella Ringel-Hoffman, writing in Yediot Aharonot, said a referendum was “not a process that enhances the decision-making process.”
“The opposite is true: This is a process that detracts and diminishes the responsibility of the political establishment, it diffuses it and decentralizes it in a bad way,” she wrote. “This is still a tool that undermines the status of the government, its right and its obligation to conduct negotiations, to make the best agreements possible and to make decision.”
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