Israel Ganz, chairman of the Yesha Council representing some 500,000 Jewish residents of Judea and Samaria, on Monday urged the Israeli government to extend sovereignty to the territory with U.S. support.
“Backed by the American superpower, we must apply sovereignty over Judea and Samaria,” Ganz said at the JNS International Policy Summit in Jerusalem. He also called for the expansion of U.S. President Donald Trump’s initiative encouraging voluntary emigration from Gaza, extending it to Judea and Samaria.
“We have returned to our land, built our state, returned to Jerusalem, and returned to the region of Judea and Samaria. Now, we must continue on this path for the sake of historical justice and for Israel’s eternal existence and security,” said Ganz, who also serves as head of the Binyamin Regional Council in southern Samaria.
Ganz argued that if “the welfare of the Palestinian Arabs is truly so important to the Western world,” it should support an Israeli-U.S. declaration officially declaring the two-state solution “a thing of the past.”
At the summit, Binyamin Regional Council spokeswoman Eliana Passentin presented the “Declaration of Sovereignty,” saying that if adopted it will “bring stability and peace to the Middle East.”
“We call for the State of Israel to apply Israeli sovereignty over the entirety of Judea and Samaria. This region is the Land of the Bible and has belonged to the Jewish people since time immemorial,” the declaration reads.
“This act will resonate throughout the world and ensure that the Jewish people live forever in their historic homeland,” it adds.
As of Jan. 1, 529,704 Israelis lived in Judea and Samaria, amounting to approximately 5.28% of the population of the Jewish state.
Nearly 70% of Israeli citizens want Israel to extend full legal sovereignty to the area, according to a poll conducted on Jan. 29.
Fifty-eight percent of Israeli Jews believe that communities in Judea and Samaria contribute to the security of the country, according to a poll the Jewish People Policy Institute (JPPI) published on March 11.