The head of the Jordan Valley Council criticizes the Israeli authorities’ policy of indifference in face of Arab takeover of state lands, funded and supported by Europe: Enforcement and sovereignty are required.
Head of Jordan Valley Council David Elhayani calls for practical Israeli steps toward the application of sovereignty in the Jordan Valley and significant enforcement to stop the continued Arab encroachment on Israel’s land holdings in the Jodan Valley, supported and funded by Europe.
Elhayani made these remarks in an interview with Arutz 7 after the European Union signed the initiative for an amusement park in Area C, which is subject to full Israeli control. At the signing ceremony, a representative of the European Union announced that it is one of a number of initiatives that the EU is planning for the benefit of the Palestinian Authority in Area C as part of the concept that Palestinian holdings in these strategic territories are extremely important, as well as to prevent the establishment of new Israeli villages there.
In a discussion with David Elhayani on the European-Palestinian moves, he said that it is not new and he spoke of the lack of the required Israeli response. “For years, we were too tolerant and lax toward the European Union. Even when we pointed it out and warned that the European Union is acting illegally by enabling the Arabs to build illegally, supplying it with systems and building materials for illegal construction in Area C on state lands. The state treated the European Union with kid gloves. The time has come to change our approach and our thinking and see the European Union as criminals and scofflaws and not allow them to enter Judea and Samaria”.
According to him, “Even if there are political considerations and interests – it is possible to act by enforcing the law. We can explain to them in another way, explaining that they are supplying materials that we will destroy. It would be a shame for you to waste your money on what will only be destroyed. There must be a very clear policy by government direction, in which the Right says do not interfere in what happens in Judea and Samaria.”
“Besides the fact that a foreign entity is interfering in Israeli policy, this is a sovereign state that is responsible for this parcel of land and it must decide the strategic thinking toward Judea and Samaria and the Jordan Valley. Each moment that passes without a clear, aggressive and strong policy toward illegal building, we are losing our hold on the area. We are in a period of the 2000s version of ‘Tower and Stockade’. The settlement enterprise is the State of Israel’s front of the future”, says Elhayani, who explains that by the words “clear policy” he means not only enforcement but also the application of Israeli sovereignty, which has not yet been applied over the Jordan Valley.
“Sovereignty is a matter of governance. Sovereignty in the Jordan Valley is significant because when the State of Israel makes the decision to apply sovereignty over the Jordan Valley, the Arabs’ dreams for another state will totally disappear. As long as this does not happen, we have a daily war and existential battle over control of Area C and unfortunately, because Israeli governments have had a lax policy for years, the Arabs are triumphing over us, bit by bit.”
About remarks made by the European Union representative that there is a strategic, orderly plan whose purpose is to deepen Palestinian holding precisely in Area C, which is an important strategic territory, David Elhayani explains that this is clear and “We never thought otherwise for a moment. We are familiar with the decisions made by the PA Council that encourage the takeover of Area C, especially state lands, and that grants are awarded to those who do it. They understand well the importance of their battle, while our government has still not understood, except for the Ministry of Settlement, which saw the importance of the battle for Area C and has allocated resources for it, but ultimately, “These Ministries are intended only for documentation and have no authority.”
Elhayani claims that behind the weak policy that the Israeli government has been projecting for decades, is the same concept that seeks to buy quiet with the price of apathy. “It is the same idea that was here on the sixth of October. We had the opportunity to change the concept and come to terms with all the Arabs who build illegally by using aggressive enforcement so that they will understand that it will no longer be the way it was before.”
“If the state continues to conduct itself in this way, with no aggressive enforcement of law, we will find ourselves in a situation where Judea and Samaria will turn into Gaza”, concludes Elhayani.