Trump reportedly donated funds to build towns for settlement evacuees
Bob Dylan won't attend Nobel Prize ceremony in Sweden; Deputy FM upbraids Liberman for Trump, settlement remarks
The Times of Israel covered Wednesday’s events as they unfolded.
Knesset holds preliminary vote on settlement legalization
The Knesset votes on a bill to legalize unlawful West Bank settlements in a bid to prevent the court-ordered demolition of the Amona outpost north of Ramallah.
Fifty-eight vote in favor, 50 against the first version of the bill.
MKs Yoav Kisch (Likud), Shuli Moalem-Refaeli (Jewish Home) and Bezalel Smotrich (Jewish Home) have presented their arguments for the bills, with Justice Minister Ayelet Shaked closing the defense with an attack on left-wing “hypocrisy.”
From the opposition, Zionist Union leader Isaac Herzog says: “What was done here is theft in broad daylight. They took private lands, entirely contravening international law.”
In the final address of the debate, Housing Minister Yoav Galant (Kulanu) says the law won’t be advanced by his party if it harms the High Court, and says most of these settlers built on these lands “innocently, with the support and approval of the government.”
Galant is met with screaming from the opposition.
— Marissa Newman
Russia pulls out of ICC
Russia withdraws its signature from the International Criminal Court’s founding statute.
Jewish Home minister botches vote
Agriculture Minister Uri Ariel of the religious-nationalist Jewish Home party accidentally votes against the second version of the outpost legalization bill, so it passes with 57 for and 52 against.
He’s heckled by opposition MKs, who howl with laughter.
The third version passes 58 for and 51 against, with Ariel presumably voting in line with the government.
What did the Knesset just vote in favor of?
The plenum votes on three different versions of a bill to authorize West Bank outposts. All three drafts had slight differences; for example, Smotrich’s stipulated that only construction that explicitly received government backing be legalized. Moalem-Refaeli’s was the first to be submitted; the other two were presented as softened versions after the attorney general took issue with her version — though Israel’s top lawyer has subsequently criticized all three.
Now, the legislation will be sent to either the Knesset’s Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee or Constitution, Justice, and Law Committee to be revised ahead of its first reading.
To become law, the proposals will need to pass three readings in the Knesset plenum. The process is expected to be expedited due to the looming evacuation order of the Amona outpost, which must be accomplished by December 25.
— Marissa Newman
Minister writes ‘Amona won’t be evacuated’ on her hand
Culture and Sports Minister Miri Regev of the Likud party wrote “Amona won’t be evacuated” on her hand ahead of the Knesset vote on three version of a bill to legalize West Bank outposts.
Apparently the reminder helped her vote in favor of the bill, unlike fellow coalition minister Uri Ariel who accidentally voted against it.
לא נגענו pic.twitter.com/Dz46oPrGNS
— דניאל אופיר 📺 (@danielofir) November 16, 2016
Haredi minister spiked muezzin bill ‘because it didn’t include Knesset’
Health Minister Yaakov Litzman, who a day earlier torpedoed a bill aiming to clamp down on the call to prayer from mosques, says that he didn’t back the proposed law because “It didn’t include the Knesset. That’s where the loudest noise comes from.”
Litzman, on why he opposed the muezzin law: "It didn't include the Knesset. That's where the loudest noise comes from." pic.twitter.com/dEMMhNUWai
— Judah Ari Gross (@JudahAriGross) November 16, 2016
On Amona, “I came from the Knesset. Today we passed a regulation bill, maybe it’ll be a deregulation bill. I don’t know.”
— Judah Ari Gross
Globalization needs ‘course correction,’ Obama says
Globalization has brought many economic benefits to the world but needs a “course correction” to address growing inequality, US President Barack Obama said Wednesday on his European farewell tour.
“The global path of globalization demands a course correction,” Obama said in a speech in Greece, before continuing his journey to Berlin.
He added that inequality in the global economy “now constitutes one of the greatest challenges to our economies and to our democracies,” he said.
On his final voyage abroad, the outgoing president has repeatedly referred to the anger that lately brought success to populist movements in Europe and the United States, such as the Brexit referendum and Donald Trump’s surprise election.
“The impulse to pull back from a globalized world is understandable… but given the nature of technology it is my assertion that it’s not possible to cut ourselves off from one another,” Obama said.
— AFP
Kahlon explains why he backed Amona bill
Kahlon says he backed the outpost legalization bill because he received assurances from the prime minister that the legislation won’t undermine the authority of the High Court.
Jewish Home minister calls outpost bill ‘watershed moment’
Jewish Home MK Uri Ariel calls the passing of the bill a watershed moment for the settlement of the West Bank. “Until now the government tried to ignore the problems and roll the questions to the court. From today, MKs and ministers are taking responsibility and are regulating [the outposts],” he says in a statement.
Liberman urges settlement bloc building push
Defense Minister Avigdor Liberman calls on the Israeli government to focus its interactions with the incoming US administration on reaching understandings that would allow Jerusalem to continue building inside the settlement blocs — even if that meant giving up the right to expand outlying settlements.
Liberman urges Israeli officials to wait until President-elect Donald Trump appoints his senior staff before commenting publicly on their expectations for future US policies. At the same time, he says he is ready to freeze building outside the blocs in exchange for an American agreement to expand settlements in Efrat, Ma’ale Adumim and other areas widely understood to remain under Israeli sovereignty in any future peace deal.
“We currently have a right-wing coalition in Israel and a Republican president and a Republican Congress. And therefore we can expect to be able to reach understandings vis-a-vis the Middle East, the issue of settlements in Judea and Samaria and the Iranian issue,” Liberman says, using the Biblical name for the West Bank in his first briefing to Israeli reporters since his Yisrael Beytenu party joined the government in May.
— Raphael Ahren
Deputy FM snaps back at Liberman’s comments
Deputy Foreign Minister Tzipi Hotovely quickly replies to Liberman’s comments about the new US administration and the settlements, saying his remarks are solely his own and “do not reflect the stance of the government.”
“The new administration and the government of Israel will start the process of communication as is customary with Trump’s entering the White House, and every limitation on the Israeli right to build harms Israeli interests at this time,” she says.
One dead in suspected gang shooting in Rishon Lezion
Police are at the scene of a shooting in the city of Rishon Lezion, south of Tel Aviv, where a 26-year-old man was killed. Initial reports indicate it was a gangland assassination attempt.
Ultra-Orthodox draft figures down, IDF says
The IDF releases draft statistics for the past year which show a drop in ultra-Orthodox men enlisting in the army, and a rise in the number of religious women in the ranks. Overall, around 72% of men who are given enlistment orders are drafted.
Regulation bill ‘won’t save Amona,’ Likud MK says
Coalition chairman and Likud MK David Bitan tells Army Radio that even though the Knesset is trying to push through a bill to retroactively legalize illegal West Bank outposts, it won’t save Amona from a court-ordered demolition.
Israel is a “state that upholds the law, and the regulation bill can’t help in the case of Amona,” he says.
Dylan to ditch Nobel Prize ceremony
Music icon Bob Dylan will not attend the Nobel ceremony in December to accept his literature prize because he has “other commitments,” the Swedish Academy said on Wednesday.
“The Swedish Academy received a personal letter from Bob Dylan yesterday where he explained that he could not make himself available in December and leave to Stockholm to accept the Nobel prize in literature,” it said in a statement.
— AFP
Netanyahu reacts to Liberman’s remarks
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu issues a terse response to Liberman’s comments about Trump and the settlements, saying “he will listen to the ministers and form a governmental position with the new US administration.”
Jerusalem mayor calls for green light to demolish illegal E. Jerusalem houses
Jerusalem Mayor Nir Barkat calls on the High Court of Justice to approve the immediate demolition of illegal construction in East Jerusalem in light of its rejection of a petition to stay the evacuation of the illegal outpost of Amona.
IDF chief gives awards to elite commandos
IDF Chief of Staff Gadi Eisenkot awards the elite Sayeret Matkal unit with a citation and presents a letter of appreciation to the Military Intelligence’s special operation department for their “creative thinking, wisdom and bravery.”
At the award ceremony, also attend by head of Military Intelligence Maj. Gen. Herzi Halevy, Eisenkot praises the elite units as “trailblazers” and leaders in the military.
“The connection between intelligence, technology and operational ability greatly contributes and will continue to contribute,” he says.
Eisenkot tells the reconnaissance unit he has “great appreciation” for their service and tells them to “look ahead to the challenges to come.”
— Judah Ari Gross
Chuck Schumer elected Senate Democratic leader
US Senate Democrats on Wednesday elected Chuck Schumer as their leader, a position from which he will head opposition to Republican President-elect Donald Trump beginning in January.
— AFP
UK says outpost legalization bill ‘undermines’ 2-state solution hopes
London expresses concern over the Knesset’s passing of a bill to retroactively legalize West Bank outposts, saying “such outposts are currently illegal under both Israeli domestic law and international humanitarian law.”
“Should this proposal go ahead, it would seriously undermine prospects for a two-state solution. I urge the Israeli government to reconsider the land regulation bill at the earliest opportunity,” the Foreign Office says in a statement.
Trump donated funds to help build towns for Gaza, Sinai evacuees
President-elect Donald Trump donated money to help build homes for Israelis evacuated from the Sinai and Gaza Strip, Yedioth Ahronoth reports.
The paper doesn’t cite figures, but says the amount was in the millions of shekels.