A new political plan by MK Bezalel Samotrich (Habayit Hayehudi) proposes creating a government mechanism to issue high monetary compensation to “encourage voluntary emigration” of those Arabs from Judea and Samaria as well as green-line Israel willing to give up the realization of their national aspirations between the Mediterranean Sea and the Jordan River. Next week, a conference of Smotrich’s faction, the National Union, is expected to adopt his plan.
“This is not a transfer,” Smotrich told Israel Hayom on Wednesday. “Today, 20,000 Palestinians leave the West Bank every year. Their own surveys show that 30% aspire to emigrate. I will help them carry this out, fairly, with full monetary compensation, and not by coercion. It will be cheaper than wars and military operations every few years.”
The plan, which Smotrich has dubbed the Decision Plan, also includes the dismantling of the Palestinian Authority, the application of Israeli law to all areas of Judea and Samaria, increasing settlement growth to double and even triple the Jewish population there, and, most important, the “erasure from the public consciousness and from reality of the paradigm of a Palestinian State.”
According to Samotrich, “It is not despair that drives terrorism, but hope, whose main expression is the Palestinian State. That is what I intend to sever.”
Smotrich strongly criticizes the political echelon’s directives to the IDF: “They say to the Army: there’s a fire – you must pour fuel and water on it at the same time. We can’t expect the IDF to eradicate terrorism and at the same time work to keep alive the hope that fuels terrorism.”
The Samotrich plan grants many civil rights to the Arabs of Judea and Samaria who would abandon their national aspirations in the Land of Israel, short of the right to vote for the Knesset. It proposes a period of 30 years during which the true attitudes of those who remain in the country will be examined, and accordingly offers them a range of upgraded rights, including the right to vote for and be elected to the Knesset, but on the condition that they serve in the IDF, as do the Druze and other non-Jewish minorities.
Smotrich’s voluntary immigration plan leaves open the possibility that non-Arab Israelis would demand to also be paid to leave behind their national aspirations and move to Canada. Is it possible in a democratic country such as Israel to favor only one national group with immigration incentives? Somebody should ask the High Court of Justice.