Yisrael Beytenu MK moves to force Knesset committee to debate West Bank sovereignty bills

Yisrael Beytenu MK Oded Forer announces that he is collecting signatures of members of the Knesset Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee in order to force a debate on legislation that would apply Israeli sovereignty to the West Bank settlement of Ma’ale Adumim.

He raps committee chairman Boaz Bismuth for taking no steps to advance the bill

“It’s been almost a month since MK Avigdor Liberman’s bill to apply sovereignty to Ma’ale Adumim passed its preliminary reading in the plenum, together with the bill to apply sovereignty to Judea and Samaria, and the chair of the Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee still hasn’t scheduled a discussion on the proposals,” says Forer.

He calls on “every committee member who believes there should be Israeli sovereignty in Judea and Samaria to sign this request, regardless of coalition or opposition considerations.”

Lawmakers approved Yisrael Beytenu’s bill, as well as a measure that would apply sovereignty to all West Bank settlements sponsored by Noam MK Avi Maoz, in preliminary readings in late October despite Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s opposition. The passage of those bills was met with anger in Washington.

Both bills were referred to Bismuth’s committee for further work ahead of the first of three readings needed for them to be passed into law, but neither has yet been placed on its agenda.

In a tweet last night, Maoz accused Netanyahu’s government of working to halt the advancement of his bill, several days after appealing directly to Bismuth not to delay its advancement further.

Despite opposing the bills, Netanyahu’s government has taken steps to significantly expand Ma’ale Adumim.