Likud Members Vote On Resolution Calling To Annex West Bank

Members of the central committee of the Likud party on Sunday unanimously voted on a resolution that obligates them to work to annex the West Bank.

The vote was held after 900 committee members signed a joint letter calling to hold it.

According to a report by the Haaretz website, members voted on a resolution saying: “As we mark 50 years of the liberation of Judea and Samaria, which include in their territory our eternal capital Jerusalem, the Likud Center calls Likud elected officials to act to enable unhindered construction and to enforce the laws and sovereignty of Israel over the entire liberated centers of settlement in Judea and Samaria.”

The Likud conference, held in central Israel, was attended by approximately 1,000 people. Former minister Gideon Sa’ar spoke during the ceremony.

He said: “All historic processes were led by the Likud. The mission of our generation is to remove any question mark from the future of the settlement enterprise.”

Deputy Foreign Minister Tzipy Hotovely, who also spoke at the conference, said that the Likud “supports sovereignty. The Likud is writing a very remarkable chapter in history. After Jerusalem and the Golan Heights, the time has come for sovereignty in Judea and Samaria. Judea and Samaria are an indivisible part of the State of Israel, and this is what we are voting on.”

Other ministers expressed a similar sentiment. Minister Chaim Katz said that the territories comprising the West Bank “are an inseparable part of the Land of Israel and will remain as such forever and ever.”

Tourism Minister Yariv Levin said the time has come “to remove the great obstacle in our path. The time has come to change from the ground up our justice system.”

Likud activist Shevach Stern, the man behind the resolution MKs voted on Sunday, said: “Fifteen years ago the center made an unforgettable decision that a Palestinian state will not be established. People ask me what is the value of this decision today. This 2002 decision is still being implemented today. The center’s decision does not legally bind the center but it is moral.”

According to Haaretz, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu did not attend the event. Some of Judaism’s holiest sites are located in the West Bank, which has been home to ancient Jewish communities.