Israel: Knesset Makes Referendum Essential for Withdrawal from East Jerusalem

On Monday a law, proposed by the Likud Party, mandating a referendum before any decision to withdraw from sovereign Israeli territory was adopted 65-33 in the 120-member Knesset.

Because of the reference to "sovereign Israeli territory", there is no need for a referendum to withdraw from the West Bank. However, because the Golan Heights and East Jerusalem were annexed by the Knesset, a referendum will be required unless withdrawal is approved by a two-thirds majority of the legislators

Having strengthened its position vis-a-vis the Palestinians on the negotiation table, having passed the loyalty bill requiring new immigrants to pledge loyalty to the "Jewish and democratic" state, the Knesset is now purusing the "eternal and indivisible capital".

The opposition party Kadima voted against the bill, and most Labour members also opposed despite their party's presence in the governing coalition. Chief Palestinian negotiator Saeb Erekat harshly criticized the new law:

Ending the occupation of our land is not and cannot be dependent on any sort. With the passage of this bill, the Israeli leadership, yet again, is making a mockery of international law, which is not subject to the whims of Israeli public opinion. Under international law there is a clear and absolute obligation on Israel to withdraw not only from East Jerusalem and the Golan Heights, but from all of the territories that it has occupied since 1967.  Ending the occupation of our land is not and cannot be dependent on any sort of referendum.

This is Israel’s attempt to veil its oppression of the Palestinian people as an exercise of Israeli democracy. Ending the occupation and freeing the Palestinian people would be the purest expression of democratic values. The international community’s answer to this bill should be a worldwide recognition of the Palestinian state on the 1967 borders, with East Jerusalem as its capital.