Israel to vote on ‘Greater Jerusalem bill’

Occupied Jerusalem: A bill that critics say would amount to de facto annexation of Israeli colonies surrounding Occupied Jerusalem is expected to go before ministers on Sunday, drawing harsh criticism from Palestinians and those hoping to salvage the two-state solution.

The bill would absorb major Israeli colonies currently in the occupied West Bank into Jerusalem by enlarging the city limits.

Its opponents argue that it is a step towards full unilateral annexation of the West Bank colonies affected—a move that would be sure to spark international outrage.

For the vast majority of the international community, the status of Israel’s colonies, built on land the Palestinians see as part of their future state, are to be decided in peace negotiations.

Approval by a ministerial committee on Sunday would fast-track the bill’s progress through parliament.

“This coming Sunday I shall take part in Jewish history,” Intelligence Minister Yisrael Katz posted on Facebook Wednesday.

“The ‘Greater Jerusalem bill’, which I initiated, will come up for a vote in the ministerial committee on legislation,” he said.

Senior Palestinian official Hanan Ashrawi said the plan could kill hopes for an independent Palestinian state.

Ashrawi, a member of the Palestine Liberation Organisation’s executive committee, said late Wednesday that “such efforts represent the end of the two-state solution.”

“Israel is in the business of prolonging the military occupation and not ending it, legalising the presence of extremist Jewish colonists on Palestinian soil, and completing the total isolation and annexation of Palestinian Jerusalem,” she wrote.

Israel occupied the West Bank, including east Jerusalem, in the 1967 War. It later annexed east Jerusalem in a move never recognised by the international community.

It sees the entire city as its indivisible capital, while the Palestinians want the eastern sector as the capital of their future state.

Prominent members of Netanyahu’s coalition openly oppose the idea of a Palestinian state and advocate annexing most of the West Bank.

The major colony of Maaleh Adumim, east of Occupied Jerusalem, would be among the areas absorbed into the enlarged city limits under the draft legislation, according to an explanatory note by its sponsors.

Maaleh Adumim’s municipal boundaries include a contentious area known as E1 adjacent to the colony.

E1 and Maaleh Adumim form an Israeli buffer east of Occupied Jerusalem that the Palestinians say would divide the city from the West Bank and destroy the possibility of a contiguous Palestinian state.

Also incorporated under the new bill would be the ultra-Orthodox Jewish colony of Beitar Illit, southwest of Occupied Jerusalem, the Gush Etzion colony bloc to the south and Efrat and Givat Zeev colonies.

“The colonies joined to Jerusalem will maintain certain municipal autonomy, since they will be considered sub-municipalities of Jerusalem,” the draft bill says.

Katz said the bill would add an additional 150,000 people to Jerusalem’s population, strengthening its Jewish majority.