Israel’s leftist-centrist parties responded with scathingly harsh criticism this week to a plan floated by senior Likud officials to pay Palestinians to leave Israel.
A number of Likud members, specifically Moshe Feiglin, coalition chairman Zeev Elkin, and Knesset members Yuli Edelstein and Yariv Levin, participated in a conference Jan. 1 dealing with the application of Israeli law beyond the Green Line. Feiglin suggested paying $500,000 to each Palestinian family willing to emigrate from Israel.
Feiglin’s direct approach was backed by a few Likud members who suggested annexing parts of the West Bank and applying Israeli law in those territories.
“I still hope and believe that if the public sees this, they will understand that the masks have been removed,” said Hatnua chairwoman Tzipi Livni, who is challenging Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, the Likud party leader, in Israel’s Jan. 22 elections.
“This only proves that what looks like the Likud … is not just the pleasant people we see talking on television, but rather extremists who want to prevent us from reaching an agreement,” said Livni.
“These are people who want to compel us to live in a halachic state,” or according to Jewish law. “They are the essence, the heart of these parties,” she said.
“Netanyahu is making great efforts to keep Feiglin and his dangerous beliefs behind the campaign scenes, but the truth has come to light,” said Meretz chairwoman Zahava Gal-On.
“The Likud-Beiteinu [coalition] is not just a nationalistic, right-wing party but rather a core extension of the most extreme settlers whose vision is that Israel annex territories without granting the residents their citizens’ rights.”
Labor spokesman Eitan Cabel also responded to Feiglin’s comments: “We have once again discovered that the Likud suffers from schizophrenia. We will go to sleep at night with the moderate Bibi and in the morning wake up with the extreme Bibi who follows Feiglin, Elkin and the rest of the extremists.
“The comments we are hearing on the eve of the elections are just a promo to the big show Netanyahu and his cronies are planning for us,” Cabel added.
Likud officials other than Feiglin also spoke at the conference. Edelstein expressed his support of gradual steps toward enforcing Israeli autonomy in the West Bank and determined that “not enforcing autonomy means maintaining the status quo; strengthening the international community’s demands to return to the 1967 borders.”
Levin said that even though the chances are slim, Israel must enforce Israeli rule of law in all settlements beyond the Green Line and not only those in the settlement bloc. Elkin added that due to the difficulty, Israel must annex one step at a time — first the Jewish areas and then the rest.