Israel’s Labor leader: West Bank Won’t Be Part of Israel
i24 News – During an audience exchange at Channel 12 on Saturday, the head of Israel’s center-left Labor party said...
Merav Michaeli. Photo: Wikimedia Commons.
i24 News – During an audience exchange at Channel 12 on Saturday, the head of Israel’s center-left Labor party said it’s a “shame” to invest in West Bank transportation, as the area won’t be a part of Israel in the future.
Transportation Minister Merav Michaeli was asked why she “froze all the transportation planning” in the West Bank, with the minister responding, “I didn’t stop anything that was already in progress.”
“I didn’t release new things, that’s true. Because I think it’s a shame to invest in a place that in the end… it won’t be part of the sovereign state of Israel.”
The audience member replied, “But right now, there are residents there. Israeli residents, like you and me, who want to receive service like every other Israeli citizen receives – and there is no reason to deprive them.”
Michaeli clarified, “There was no deprivation. In terms of the basket of resources, the south and the north were much more deprived.”
Shlomo Ne’eman, mayor of the Yesha Council in the West Bank, told i24NEWS that the “battle for votes against Meretz is not interesting, what is interesting is the actions, that in practice, work on the tunnel road stopped visitors to Gush Etzion.”
He accused her of halting work on vital areas in the region that serves both Israelis and Palestinians, and that he hoped a right-wing government would take power after the elections.
“On November 1st, a government will be elected that believes in our right to this land and nothing less than the fact that, unlike you, it will take care of the citizens of Israel in every corner of the country,” Ne’eman said.
As part of Labor’s platform for the 25th Knesset (Israeli parliament), the party promotes “separation from the Palestinians as a strategic national goal.”