A bill intended to protect the future of the Golan Heights, that it remains under Israeli sovereignty, will not be brought to committee on Sunday as Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu is pushing it aside.

The bill is being pushed by Likud MK Carmel Shama, who wished to fortify the 1981 Golan Law which annexed the liberated area to the State of Israel. In 1999, the Knesset voted on another law demanding at least a 61-vote Knesset majority to relinquish any areas of the Golan, a move prompted by diplomatic moves that signaled Israel might be preparing to make land concessions on the Golan.

Shama wants to strengthen the law to demand a two-thirds Knesset vote to relinquish control of areas of the Golan, 80 of the 120 members of Knesset. 25 MKs from both the coalition and opposition have signed his bill to push it ahead to Knesset.

Shama explains that the current law, requiring a simple majority, permits the future of the Golan to rest in the hands of Arab MKs, stating “I do not wish to permit the post-Zionist or anti-Zionists to have the final say regarding the Golan’s future.

While the bill was to appear the ministerial committee’s agenda today, Shama received a request from aides to the prime minister last week to postpone the move for two weeks under the guise the prime minister is abroad and he should be permitted time to study the bill.

Shama tells the media that he is certain the prime minister will not have a problem with his bill, adding we all recall on the eve of the national elections the prime minister surrounded by supporters on the Golan Heights stated he will never compromise Israel’s sovereignty of the area.

(Yechiel Spira – YWN Israel)