Israel Matzav

Creeping annexation?

A bill that has been introduced in the Knesset to put museums located in Jewish towns in Judea and Samaria is not just intended to provide a funding vehicle says sponsor Uri Ariel (National Union). It's also meant to be the beginning of a process that will annex the Jewish towns in Judea and Samaria to the State of Israel.

On the surface of it, the bill is about museum funding and allows those institutions to apply for government money on an equal footing with museums within the pre-Six Day War armistice line.

But the bill’s author, MK Uri Ariel (National Union), has been blunt about his plan to annex Judea and Samaria through a de facto legislative process, by which each Israeli law would be amended to apply to West Bank settlements. At present, they are under military law.

On Wednesday, the Knesset Education Committee, during a meeting in which only three members were present, Ariel and Israel Beiteinu MKs Robert Ilatov and Alex Miller unanimously approved the museum bill for its first reading by the legislature. It becomes law only after a third reading passes.

“It could be voted on in the Knesset plenum [for a first reading] as early as next week or the week after,” said Miller, who chairs the Education Committee.

...

As a resident of the Ariel settlement in Samaria, Miller told The Jerusalem Post he sees how the problem with the region’s museums are part and parcel of the larger issue of living in an area of the country which is under military law.

Currently, he said, an “absurd situation” exists in which Israel is a democratic country, and yet in Judea and Samaria its citizens do not have the same rights as other Israelis.

Waiting to hear howls of protest from Obama, the EU, the 'Palestinians' and the UN.... But this is a direct consequence of the 'Palestinian' refusal to come to the table. Actions have consequences.

Labels: annexation, Uri Ariel

posted by Carl in Jerusalem @ 11:25 AM