Likud’s most far-right figure proposes paying each Palestinian family in West Bank $500,000 to move to West
Akiva Novick
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Several Likud officials called for the annexation of the West Bank on Tuesday, in contradiction with the party’s official policy.
Despite being instructed by the Likud campaign not to give interviews, Moshe Feiglin made controversial statements during a conference in Jerusalem on Tuesday.
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The Women in Green conference was attended by several Likud officials who discussed operative ways to impose Israeli sovereignty beyond the Green Line.
Feiglin, who earlier on Tuesday was detained by police after trying to pray at the Temple Mount, proposed paying Palestinians to leave Israel.
“The State of Israel is paying 10% of its GNP every year for the two-state solution and the Oslo Accords. It’s paying for separation fences, Iron Domes and a guard at every café. Soon we’ll have to place Iron Domes in every school in Tel Aviv.
“With this budget we can give every Arab family in Judea and Samaria $500,000 to encourage it to emmigrate to a place with a better future.
“You may say, ‘But no one will have them.’ That’s not true because the Western nations are shrinking due to low birth rates. The question is whether the world will have Sudanese migrants who can’t build or migrants from Judea and Samaria who do know how to build.
“Polls conducted in Gaza and Judea and Samaria show that 80% (of Palestinians) in Gaza and 65% (of Palestinians) in Judea and Samaria want to emmigrate. We have here the perfect solution. ”
During the conference Minister Yuli Edelstein endorsed a gradual process of imposing Israeli sovereignty in the West Bank. MK Yariv Levin expressed similar views but admitted the chances of imposing Israeli law beyond the Green Line were not high.
Zeev Elkin proposed imposing sovereignty in the Jewish-populated areas first and then in the Palestinian areas.
A Likud official said, “These radical statements are good for Netanyahu from an election standpoint. They help get back rightist votes that shifted to the Habayit Hayehudi party. No one is going to annex the territories. It’s a good election slogan.”
He noted that Netanyahu will not publically condemn the statements.
Yuval Karni and Yaron Doron contributed to this report
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