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Israel ministers to consider bill 'annexing' Jordan Valley

February 16, 2018 at 12:22 pm

Israeli military’s tanks seen stationed in the Jordan Valley during a military training excercise, on May 5, 2015 [Shadi Hatem/Apaimages]

Israel’s Ministerial Committee for Legislation will consider on Sunday a bill that would see Israeli law formally applied to the Jordan Valley region of the occupied West Bank, reported Arutz Sheva.

According to MK Sharren Haskel (Likud), who proposed the legislation: “The support we are receiving in the international arena from our friend the United States proves that there has not been and will not be a better time.”

“In the dynamic reality that changes at every moment, who knows what will each day will bring. We have a rare opportunity to approve the proposal before the end of the current Knesset session,” Haskel said yesterday.

“The bill to apply Israeli law to the Jordan Valley is the key to true stability and coexistence. On both the right and left, there is agreement on the security importance of our eastern border,” she added.

Arutz Sheva noted that it is unclear whether Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu “will allow the vote on the bill to go through”, having recently prevented a vote by the ministerial committee on a different bill seeking the annexation of settlements in the occupied West Bank.

Read: Israel evicts 30 families from Jordan Valley for settlement expansion