Likud lawmaker Boaz Bismuth said on Tuesday that applying Israeli sovereignty to Judea and Samaria is more important than expanding the Abraham Accords, though he said that was also a paramount pursuit.
“Normalization is important, but applying sovereignty is even more so. With God’s help we will do this soon, because this war must end in victory,” the new chair of the Knesset Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee said, during a tour of local communities alongside Samaria Regional Council head Yossi Dagan. It was his first official visit since taking the position.
Yoni HaYisraeli, chairman of the Likud branch in Samaria, also joined the tour, which included visits to communities, farms and security observation points.
“On behalf of all the settlement movement in Samaria, I want to bless our dear and true partner, Boaz Bismuth, who always has been and remains wholeheartedly loyal to the Land of Israel,” Dagan remarked during the tour.
“We are standing before a diplomatic tsunami led by monsters in human form—terrorist monsters who with one hand want to slaughter Jews and with the other to slander and sow discord,” he continued.
“In the face of those monsters, we say: This is our land, and together we will work to bring full sovereignty to Judea and Samaria. Sovereignty is historical justice—and it is also the true victory in the war that has been forced upon us.”
Bismuth thanked Dagan, crediting him making eventual sovereignty a reality.
“My first tour as committee chair is here, in Samaria—because Samaria is my home, it is part of me. I feel much more at home in Samaria than anywhere else in the world,” said Bismuth.
“We will apply sovereignty at home. It may sound paradoxical that we’ve been waiting so long—for sovereignty in our own homeland, in our own country,” he added.
Eight lawmakers from Israel’s ruling Likud Party on Monday published an open letter to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, calling on him to apply the country’s civilian law to parts of Judea and Samaria.
The move “is both a national imperative and a necessary response to growing international momentum for the recognition of a Palestinian state,” wrote signatories Dan Illouz, Ariel Kallner, Galit Distel-Atbaryan, Keti Shitrit, Avichay Boaron, Afif Abed, Moshe Passal and Hanoch Milwidsky.
Ilouz, who initiated the letter, told JNS: “The moment to apply sovereignty is now. We have a stable right-wing government, a sympathetic American administration, and we are faced with a dangerous move by countries that are pushing for the establishment of a Palestinian terrorist state in the heart of the Land of Israel. Every delay comes at a price—in security, legitimacy and our national future. This is the time to decide.”
The United Kingdom, France, Canada and Australia have announced their intention to recognize a Palestinian state in September.
The signatories noted the passing on July 23 of a non-binding resolution in favor of applying Israeli sovereignty to Judea, Samaria and the Jordan Valley. The resolution received the vote of a majority of 71 out of 120 Knesset members.
