There is a movement in Israel to advance Israeli sovereignty over Judea and Samaria, areas that Israel liberated in the 1967 Six Day War. The movement is mostly associated with organizations such as Women in Green and Regavim. These organizations work hard to back right-leaning coalitions in the hope that a sympathetic government will advance the cause of sovereignty.
There have been two cases in Israel’s history in which Israel assumed sovereignty over land it had liberated. Not by accident, both occurred when Menachem Begin was prime minister. The first was in 1980, when Israel annexed the areas of Jerusalem it liberated from Jordan thus uniting a divided city. The second was in 1981 when Israel annexed the Golan Heights. The words “sovereignty” and “annexation” are so politically loaded that they are not even found in the relevant laws. Instead, the laws speak of an expansion of Israeli jurisdiction to cover these territories.
Since declarations of sovereignty happened only twice in Israel’s history, perhaps more important are ongoing policies regarding these territories. While Israeli political leaders promise Israeli sovereignty over Judea and Samaria, their policies contradict their words.
In 2017 Israel Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said, “Judea and Samaria . . . will forever belong to the State of Israel.”
In 2019 Netanyahu said, “I intend to extend sovereignty to all the settlements and the [settlement] blocs.”
Also in 2019, a week before national elections, Netanyahu vowed to apply sovereignty over the Jordan Valley and the Dead Sea area declaring, “We will apply Israeli sovereignty to the Jordan Valley and the Northern Dead Sea without delay.” He said further, “If I get that clear mandate, I will start immediately after the election.”
The Sovereignty Movement founded by Nadia Matar and Yehudit Katsover responded, “So far only declarations of sovereignty have been heard. The time has come for action. The people demand actual sovereignty over the entire territory.”
Matar and Katsover clearly expect Netanyahu to extend Israeli sovereignty over the areas liberated in 1967. However, Netanyahu — who has been in power with a “clear mandate” now for several years — has yet to declare sovereignty over any part of Judea and Samaria. He has not even extended Israeli jurisdiction to many Jewish villages in the area with their more than 400,000 Israeli citizens, notwithstanding his promise to do so.
Netanyahu talks the talk but does not walk the walk. His actions (or lack thereof) indicate that he has no intention of annexing any part of Judea and Samaria, his declarations notwithstanding. Yet, the Sovereignty Movement continues to maintain hope and works toward Israeli annexation of Judea and Samaria.
While the Sovereignty Movement is spending time, money and energy in its Quixotic quest, an insidious development is happening that will undermine Israel itself as a sovereign state.
Negotiations for new rules for dealing with pandemics are currently underway at the World Health Organization (WHO). The organization’s 194 member countries, including Israel, plan on adopting a legally binding agreement by May 2024. The updated rules will give the WHO the ability to declare a pandemic, even against the wishes of member states.
An article published in the journal on geopolitics and international relations Great Game India stated, “A whistleblower from the WHO, Dr. Astrid Stuckelberger in a stunning confession . . . said the rules under which countries work with WHO virtually put WHO in charge of all rules and formal edicts and announcements.”
Dr. Meryl Nass at the EU Parliament explains how the WHO’s proposed pandemic treaty “will remove the human rights protections currently embedded in the IHRs (International Health Regulations), will enforce surveillance, get rid of freedom of speech, require governments to censor and only push a single narrative. . . . Other things the amendments do is to bind the states so that they are no longer recommendations but enforceable edicts . . . enforce digital passports and the director-general of WHO can demand that a pandemic . . . exists. He can just declare it with no standards and then countries around the world will have to obey.”
There has been backlash from various parties. Senator Malcolm Roberts of Australia tweeted that “Australia should not cede its sovereignty to the WHO due to the organization’s corruption . . .”
WHO Director-General Tedros tweeted in response that “countries are not ceding sovereignty to the WHO,” with no further explanation and notwithstanding the legally binding nature of the current and new rules. The WHO as well, claims that member states are free to reject the accord sidestepping the legitimate concerns of Senator Roberts and others.
Israel, as a member state of the WHO, and Prime Minister Netanyahu are fully behind the new rules. Here is Netanyahu with other world “leaders” speaking about the importance of “working together,” a euphemism for one world governance.
They are clearly reading from the same script.
Israel is actively involved in negotiations even serving as “co-facilitators [with Morocco] of the United Nations General Assembly High-Level Meeting on Pandemic Prevention, Preparedness, and Response” which will take place on September 20.
We respectfully ask Israel’s sovereignty activists, “Since you are concerned with sovereignty, why do you ignore the more immediate and dangerous threat to the sovereignty of the State of Israel?”
