Arab League Slams New Israeli Mandate National Referendum
Arab League on Wednesday slammed a new Israeli law mandating a national referendum ahead of any withdrawal from annexed east Jerusalem or the Golan Heights.
The League’s deputy secretary general, Ahmed bin Helli, said the law “showed clearly the hostile nature of the Israeli government and the fact that it does not take international law and the foundations of the peace process seriously.”
Bin Helli accused the Jewish state of “putting obstacles, one after the other, in the way of all efforts towards a peaceful resolution.”
“The Arab League is still waiting for the United States to put an end to this type of behaviour,” he said, describing the Israeli law as “abusive and provocative.”
The Israeli government rejected the charges from the Arab League as hypocritical.
“Arab criticism of our referendum law would seem both hypocritical and inconsistent. Successive Palestinian presidents have stated publicly that a final peace treaty will be taken to the Palestinian people,” a spokesman for Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu told AFP.
“Why is this good for them and not good for us?” asked Mark Regev.
The law, passed late Monday by a large majority, requires any government signing a peace deal that cedes territory in occupied east Jerusalem or the Golan, or any other sovereign territory within Israel itself, either to secure the approval of parliament or hold a national referendum.
Palestinian and Syrian officials have also condemned the legislation.
East Jerusalem, which the Palestinians regard as the capital of their promised state, was annexed shortly after the 1967 Six-Day war, while the Golan Heights was formally annexed in 1981. Both were captured in the conflict.
A new measure potentially requiring Israel to receive public approval before surrendering land in any Middle East peace deal came under fire Tuesday for setting a legal precedent that could undermine the government and further complicate negotiations.
Israel’s conservative-majority Knesset, or parliament, adopted the controversial legislation late Monday after a heated debate. Passage was seen by many as an effort by right-wing parties to put the brakes on future peace deals with the Palestinians or Syrians by making it harder for Israel to give up land it seized during the 1967 Middle East War and later annexed.
Under the new measure, returning all or part of East Jerusalem or the Golan Heights — a tradeoff envisioned under peace proposals — would need to be approved by a public vote if the Knesset didn’t endorse it by a two-thirds vote. The legislation only applies to what Israel regards as sovereign land, so withdrawal from the West Bank, which was never annexed, would not come under the measure.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu issued a statement in support of the referendum, saying it would “prevent irresponsible accords in the future” and give Israelis a greater voice. Netanyahu is currently trying to nudge his right-leaning government to renew building restrictions on Jewish settlements in the West Bank in an effort to restart stalled U.S.-sponsored peace talks with the Palestinians.
But opposition leader Tzipi Livni accused Netanyahu of “weak leadership,” saying the complicated peace process is ill-suited to the restraints of a simple “yes-or-no” referendum because negotiations call for tough compromises.
“These are decisions that a leadership that comprehends the entirety of the problem and is familiar with all the aspects has to make,” Livni told leaders of her Kadima party during the pre-vote debate. “The people are not a substitute for the need for such leadership.”
As a practical impediment to peace deals, the new measure may be largely symbolic since it can be repealed or exempted in the Knesset with a simple majority. Legal experts also questioned whether the new legislation would pass muster with the Supreme Court, since it was passed as an ordinary law rather than a so-called basic law, which would have made it part of Israel’s de facto constitution.
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Tags: arab league, hypocritical, israeli mandate, national referendum
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