At 8 AM Wednesday, I received a note from the Religious Zionism party saying their coalition agreement with Likud has been signed. And one day ahead of Benjamin Netanyahu swearing in his sixth government, Kan 11 News published parts of the agreement, revealing that the next coalition will promote strengthening the Jewish community in Hebron, and promote revoking the citizenship of Israeli Arab terrorists.
One clause in the RZP-Likud agreement concerns the Jewish community of Hebron. In the clause, the coalition undertakes to increase and expand the Jewish presence in the City of the Patriarchs. The Hebron clause is part of several items dealing with the bolstering of Jewish settlement in Judea and Samaria.
The reason for introducing a specific clause that deals with the Jewish community in Hebron is related to the fact that Hebron has made headlines in recent months with an increased presence of left-wing agent provocateurs who come to the city to provoke conflicts with local Jews and security forces, then post video recordings of said conflicts to generate anti-Israel hatred.
Another reason for pushing the strengthening of Hebron is a response to demands from the left to evacuate Hebron. The clause is a statement that not only will the Hebron community not be evacuated, but would be expanded.
Yishai Fleisher, the International Spokesperson for the city of Hebron told JewishPress.com, “The incoming government’s decision to strengthen the nearly uninterrupted 3000-year-old Jewish presence in the city of Hebron is a victory over terror, and will ensure that Israel’s historical pillars, which bolster the Zionist narrative, continue to be strong.”
The new coalition will submit a bill based on the agreement with RZP regarding terrorists who are Israeli Arabs or residents of East Jerusalem. The bill makes it possible to revoke the citizenship or residency of convicted terrorists and subsequently deport them.
A similar bill has already been submitted to the 24th Knesset by MKs Orit Strock (RZP) and Avi Dichter (Likud), according to which if the terrorist is an Israeli citizen or a resident of East Jerusalem and he or she receives compensation from the Palestinian Authority following the attack they carried out and their time in an Israeli prison, it would be possible to revoke their citizenship or residency and deport them from Israel to the PA.
The same bill was submitted several times before and failed to receive the Knesset’s approval. This time it is part of the coalition agreement, alongside a proposed law imposing the death penalty on Arab terrorists.
