Habayit Hayehudi Chairman Naftali Bennett Tweeted Sunday morning: “By the end of January we, along with all the coalition factions, will submit to the government a bill calling for applying Israeli law in Ma’aleh Adumim. I expect all the members of government to support it.”
The Knesset Constitution Committee is scheduled to debate a plan to apply Israeli sovereignty in Ma’aleh Adumim on Monday. The debate, initiate by the Land of Israel Lobby in the Knesset, will review the legal aspects of applying Israeli law in Ma’aleh Adumim, an urban Israeli in Judea, 4.3 miles from Jerusalem. Ma’ale Adumim achieved city status in 1991, and in 2015 its population stood at 37,525. Located along Highway 1, which connects it to Jerusalem and the Tel Aviv Metropolitan Area, Ma’ale Adumim is one of the most prominent well established Jewish cities in the 1967 liberated territories.
MKs Yoav Kisch (Likud) and Bezalel Smotrich (Habayit Hayehudi) are expected to participate in the committee debate, as well as Ma’aleh Adumim Mayor Benny Kashriel and his deputies. The committee will hear from the city’s residents who will share the daily difficulties they run into because they live, in effect, under martial law and not under Israeli civil law.
Kisch and Smotrich last August submitted a bill to bring Ma’aleh Adumim into Israel proper, which has received the endorsement of the majority of the coalition members, other than the Haredi United Torah Judaism. The bill reads, simply: The state’s judicial and administrative rule will take effect in the territory of Ma’aleh Adumim.” The bill notes that this de facto annexation will not essentially change Israel’s demographic balance – meaning that, since the added city does not have a significant number of non-Jews, there should be no concern for the “ticking demographic time bomb” that is a major concern of Israeli politicians who oppose annexation.
According to Walla, some in the Land of Israel Lobby wanted to submit the bill officially now, in response to the UN Security Council anti-settlement resolution, but MK Kisch objected, preferring instead to wait until after President Trump’s January 20 inauguration.