Israeli minister: Netanyahu ‘no longer talking about a Palestinian state’

Israeli minister Naftali Bennett says Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has abandoned even paying lip service to the establishment of a Palestinian state, in remarks where the Jewish Home party leader took credit for what he said was a shift further right by the premier.

According to the report in The Jerusalem Post, Bennett was speaking to a central committee meeting of Jewish Home on Tuesday, where he slammed Netanyahu’s 2009 so-called ‘Bar-Ilan speech’, in which the prime minister expressed qualified support for a two-state solution.

Now, however, the Education Minister continued, “the prime minister is no longer talking about a Palestinian state”.

Bennett also reaffirmed plans put forward by himself and Justice Minister Ayelet Shaked to limit the ability of the Israeli Supreme Court to reject legislation passed in the Knesset.

“With God’s help, we will go back to a situation where the Knesset passes laws, the court interprets them and the government governs. Israel isn’t Venezuela, and the court needs to internalize that. Democracy has deep roots here. Israel is a democracy”.

Read: Israelis, Arabs don’t believe a Palestinian state will exist soon