The Sovereignty Movement, together with several other organizations, stood outside the weekly cabinet meeting demanding to block the pathway toward a Palestinian state being advanced by President Trump. “No one believed we would have to return here to stand outside the Prime Minister’s Office.”
A number of right-wing organizations arrived this morning (Sunday) outside the weekly cabinet meeting. The vigil, organized by the Sovereignty Movement, took place against the backdrop of the UN Security Council decision calling for a “credible path toward Palestinian self-determination and the establishment of a Palestinian state.” The organizations called on the government to prevent the advancement of diplomatic steps that could harm Israel’s status and security.
Members of Knesset also participated in the vigil, and during it ministers stepped out of their vehicles and pledged to pass the message on to the Prime Minister. Among the participants were MK Limor Son Har-Melech, MK Simcha Rothman, and MK Ohad Tal. Also present were representatives of the Sovereignty Movement, Israel is Forever, the Legal Forum for Israel, the Tekuma Movement, and the Pulse of Israel initiative.
Minister Yoav Kisch, who stepped out of his vehicle toward the participants, said: “A Palestinian state must not be established under any circumstances. More than that—we must lead the way to sovereignty precisely now. There is an opportunity here and we must carry this message forward and make it happen. This is the best answer to the hallucination called a Palestinian state. It is dangerous to Israel’s security, contrary to historical justice and to our right to this land, and we will fight to ensure that there will be only one state between the Jordan River and the sea, and that is the State of Israel.”
Deputy Knesset Speaker MK Limor Son Har-Melech said during the event: “Even in Oslo they told us these were just words. Back then, too, no one believed they would give them rifles, give them control. But suddenly these words become reality. Therefore, we must not ignore these things when we hear them. Trump, with all his love for the State of Israel, will ultimately look after the interests of the U.S., and at the moment of truth he will not look after our interest as the State of Israel. We must stand firm on Israel’s national and security interests and agree to no such plan. That is why, in my opinion, when he came to address the Knesset, it was forbidden to stand and give more power to someone who in my eyes does not deserve it.”
Chair of the Constitution Committee, MK Simcha Rothman, added: “When the world talks about a path to a Palestinian state, even by hint, our response must be both on the ground and in clear statements and through the application of Israeli law. We must show that we are beginning this important process of applying sovereignty, and we must do it today. The people demand it, the Knesset has established it, every poll proves it—the time has come for the government to act. A Palestinian state will not arise.”
MK Ohad Tal: “When those Hamas monsters launched that terrible massacre, their Al-Aqsa Flood, on October 7th, they did it with a simple goal—to destroy the State of Israel. When they shout, ‘From the river to the sea, free Palestine’—free from what? Free from Jews. They are calling for the destruction of the State of Israel. A Palestinian state is merely a sanitized term, the meaning of which is the destruction of the State of Israel. Therefore, Mr. Prime Minister, we call on you not to give this any legitimacy—to come out in a clear and unequivocal voice and say: A Palestinian state will not be established.”
Yehudit Katsover and Nadia Matar, heads of the Sovereignty Movement, said during the protest: “No one believed that we would have to return here to stand outside the Prime Minister’s Office. For years we stood here facing the Olmert and Barak governments, but who would have believed we would have to be here to warn against a pathway toward the establishment of a Palestinian state? This ‘pathway’ means the beginning of something. A path leads from point A to point B. The greatest catastrophe is that they are trying to calm us by claiming that this ‘path’ isn’t serious because the Arabs will have so many restrictions that they will never comply. And this is the mistake! Agreeing to a ‘pathway’ to a Palestinian state is a catastrophe in itself because it legitimizes the lie that there is some kind of ‘people’ here with ‘rights to a state.’ And why have we returned to talking about a path to a Palestinian state? Because we stopped talking about sovereignty. As long as there is no sovereignty, Israel signals uncertainty about whether this land will remain in our hands. No matter how many Jews live there, no matter how many new yishuvim and farms, without the application of sovereignty-Judea and Samaria will always be on the negotiating table. That is why we came to tell the Israeli government—which we all know opposes a Palestinian state—that merely declaring you do not support a Palestinian state is not enough. You must take action that will in practice prevent the establishment of a Palestinian state, and that is the application of sovereignty between the sea and the Jordan.”
Director-General of the Yesha Council, Omer Rahamim, noted: “On Friday night a terrorist was eliminated who had shot at a reservist fighter in Shechem last week, and what they tried to hide was that this terrorist was an officer in the Palestinian Authority’s security forces. The fact that the official body of the terror organization mistakenly called the Palestinian Authority is producing the warfare—and there is no Israeli response—is a disgrace. The government is failing in its primary duty: to protect everyone’s security.”
Chairman of the Tekuma Movement, Berale Crombie, said: “What encourages terror more than anything is hope. What gave the murderers who entered on October 7th the motivation to slaughter, rape, and kill was hope—the hope that these acts would lead to the establishment of a Palestinian state. What cuts off terror is cutting off the national hopes of the Palestinians. We must not wake up in ten years and regret that today we did not mount a strong enough protest against the hope for establishing a Palestinian state, which is the number-one cause of terror.”
Attorney Nili Nahori of Israel is Forever added: “We will never accept the lie of the Palestinian state, which is merely a prelude to another Red October. This struggle is not political; it is existential, it is historical. We have come to say clearly: Prime Minister, government ministers—you have no mandate to give up even an inch of the State of Israel.”
“Attorney Tzofnat Nordman, CEO of the Forum for Freedom and Human Dignity, said: ‘Who would have believed that we would be here today, two years after the massacre, protesting against a Palestinian state. This is happening because we are unable to say: "this is our land. There will be no other sovereignty here between the Jordan and the sea". The war caught us unprepared in terms of consciousness, not only militarily and in intelligence.
I want to address our friends in the national camp who are trying to calm things down: these are just words, it doesn’t mean anything. This is a terrible mistake. Words create reality, words shape consciousness, words prepare hearts. We must say loudly: this is our land. Ours. To say and to act: Israeli sovereignty between the Jordan and the sea today, yesterday. Because there is no vacuum. If there is no sovereignty, if we are unable to say: it is ours, the idea of a Palestinian state — the idea of the destruction of the Jewish state — will fill the void. Sovereignty, now. There is not another moment to wait.’”
Attorney Michael Sperber of the Forum for the Defense of the Land of Israel said: “We must act and take our destiny into our own hands. In ’93 we failed and received the cursed Oslo Accords. In 2005 we failed, and the direct result was the October 7th massacre. If we do not take our destiny into our own hands and instead place our trust in Trump, we will reach the same point.”
Avi Abelow, chairman of Pulse of Israel, added: “First and foremost: there will never be a State of Palestine. Not because of political stubbornness, but because such a state, between the river and the sea, for a fake, invented people with no history, called "palestinians", would mean the destruction of Israel. History, morality, and reality leave only one true alternative: the Jewish people must finally act as the sovereign in all parts of our Biblical homeland.
photos: Meir elipur