Gantz won’t support annexation of areas with Palestinian residents

Netanyahu assured majority for sovereignty in cabinet; EU warns move will have repercussions for ties.

By LAHAV HARKOV
Blue and White leader and Alternate Prime Minister Benny Gantz speaks at a Blue and White faction meeting, May 27, 2020 (photo credit: ELAD MALKA)
Blue and White leader and Alternate Prime Minister Benny Gantz speaks at a Blue and White faction meeting, May 27, 2020
(photo credit: ELAD MALKA)
Defense Minister Benny Gantz expressed opposition on Thursday to Israel extending its laws to parts of the West Bank with large Palestinian populations.
“Prior to any measure, we will make sure all professional factors voice their opinion, and in any scenario, we will not support applying sovereignty to areas with a Palestinian population in order to prevent friction,” Gantz said at a meeting with defense officials, the N12 news site reported.
“I am sure Prime Minister [Benjamin Netanyahu] will not jeopardize the peace treaty with Jordan and the strategic relations of the State of Israel with the US with an irresponsible move,” he added.
US President Donald Trump’s “Vision for Peace” for Israel and the Palestinians states that all areas in which Palestinians live remain under Palestinian control and Israeli areas under Israeli sovereignty. This would mean the creation of numerous Palestinian enclaves in Israel and Israeli enclaves in what is meant to be a Palestinian state. However, the technicalities of this stipulation are still unclear, especially in the Jordan Valley.
The Trump plan also entails Israel applying its sovereignty to 30% of the West Bank, including all settlements and the Jordan Valley, which are currently governed by the military. Netanyahu has said he plans to proceed with doing so in July, though Gantz and Foreign Minister Gabi Ashkenazi still have misgivings.
The US wants Gantz’s support for sovereignty moves in order to show there is something akin to a consensus in Israel on the matter, and therefore Netanyahu has sought Gantz’s support.
As such, Netanyahu presented a range of options for where Israel could extend its sovereignty next month, in a meeting with Gantz, Ashkenazi and Knesset Speaker Yariv Levin on Wednesday night.
The scenarios, as reported in Israeli media, range from the full 30% of the West Bank that US President Donald Trump’s peace plan would allow, to a more symbolic, smaller area. Netanyahu did not tell Gantz and Ashkenazi which option he prefers.
Interior Minister Arye Deri was present for part of the meeting, as well, and the group plans to hold further discussions next week.
An anonymous cabinet minister told Army Radio that “the diplomatic price Israel will pay if it goes to partial annexation is the same as full annexation, so it is not clear what the thinking is behind a partial move.”
Though Netanyahu showed willingness to compromise to bring Gantz on board, it became clear on Thursday that he will have a majority in the cabinet, not only the Knesset, for sovereignty, after Communications Minister Yoaz Hendel he would vote in favor of the move regardless of Gantz’s position.
“I will vote in favor of applying the law” Hendel said on Army Radio. “My stance was and remains in all my years supporting applying law to Judea and Samaria or parts of it… I support it in the cabinet, in the Knesset, in this interview and anywhere else.”
Netanyahu’s right-wing bloc currently has a majority in the cabinet, but the coalition agreement states that arrangements would be made for there to be parity in the cabinet between the pro-Netanyahu side and the pro-Gantz bloc.
Hendel is a member of Gantz’s bloc, and his latest comments mean that even if Blue and White pulls the parity card, there will be a majority in the cabinet for extending Israeli law to settlements.
In fact, Hendel specified that he would vote in favor even if Gantz opposes, saying: “I respect Gantz’s stance… but it could be that we disagree on this.
“I think the Jordan Valley is very significant. I think settlement blocs should have been part of Israel long ago. And I think, more than anything, that the gaps between the sides are not so big. We have to think how to do it in the most pragmatic, serious way for the good of the country…We have to find the areas where we have a strategic interest [to apply sovereignty], like the Jordan Valley,” Hendel stated.
Finance Minister Israel Katz said on Thursday that he has not been instructed to calculate how much moves toward sovereignty would cost Israel.
“I don’t think the money matter will be at the center of the matter,” he told Army Radio.
“I don’t think there will be significant budgetary impact,” Katz added, but admitted that his ministry had not been asked to research the matter.
Part of the reason it won’t be costly, Katz said, is that there is no plan to include Palestinians in the area put under Israeli sovereignty, and therefore no Palestinians will become Israeli citizens.
“Whoever is Palestinian will stay on the Palestinian side, and whoever is Israeli will stay on the Israeli side,” he said.
Katz spoke in favor of the Trump plan, saying it was a “historic move… it establishes the Jordan [River] as our eastern border, strengthens Jewish settlement in Judea and Samaria, strengthens our hold on Jerusalem and all the other settlements [and] ensures a Jewish majority [in Israel] for generations.”
European Union High Commissioner for Foreign Affairs Josep Borrell warned Israel yet again against extending its law to the West Bank in remarks to the European Parliament on Thursday.
“Annexation would inevitably have significant consequences for the close relationship we currently enjoy with Israel,” Borrell said. “I will not prejudge the specific impact of a possible annexation, but let me underline that the EU has its own obligations and responsibility under international and EU law.”
Borrell added that he is using all of the EU’s “diplomatic capacities in order to put pressure for that not to happen” and that he expressed “the gravity of such an announcement” in conversations with Alternate Prime Minister Benny Gantz and Foreign Minister Gabi Ashkenazi.
At the same time, Borrell admitted that “it is difficult to find unanimity” on the matter – referring to opposition from Hungary, Austria and the Czech Republic to past warnings he released – though there is “a strong, very strong majority of countries that continue supporting a negotiated two-state solution based on international parameters and considering that any annexation would be against international law.”
Diplomats from Brussels and EU member states have said that economic sanctions on Israel are unlikely in case of annexation. However, other agreements, such Israel’s participation in the multi-billion Euro Horizon Europe scientific research funding mechanism and the Erasmus Plus educational cooperation program, both due to be renewed next year, could be at stake.
The European Parliament finalized the Open Skies aviation agreement between the EU and Israel on Thursday, but the EU said: “The vote today does not prejudge the EU position on future political developments in Israel.”
Also Thursday, the lower house of the Czech Parliament debated an article by Czech Foreign Minister Tomas Petrícek and his predecessors Lubomir Zaoralek and Karel Schwarzenberg that was highly critical of Israeli sovereignty plans.
The article was subject to strong opposition from the Czech prime minister and president, and several lawmakers reiterated their criticisms, including that the country should not be communicating with Israel through the media and that it deviated from the government’s stated position.
The debate ended with a resolution rejecting “any question of the right of the State of Israel to exist and defend itself” and expressing hope that the US initiative will bring new momentum to the peace process, which was supported by all parliamentary factions except the communists.
Leon Sverdlov contributed to this report.