Netanyahu promises sovereignty over Hebron’s Tomb of the Patriarchs

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu promised to apply Israeli sovereignty to the Tomb of the Patriarchs and to the Jewish community of Hebron.

He spoke during a visit to the nearby West Bank Kiryat Arba settlement, where he also stated that he was authorizing the elevator project for the tomb, that would allow those with disabilities to visit the cave.

All West Bank settlements are slated to become part of sovereign Israel under US President Donald Trump’s peace plan, but according to the map, the status of Jewish Hebron is unclear.

Prior to Netanyahu’s speech at a celebratory event to mark the inauguration of a new neighborhood in Kiryat Arba on Sunday, Defense Minister Naftali Bennett, who heads the Yamina Party, addressed the crowd. Bennett spoke of the need to clarify with the Trump administration that the Tomb and Hebron’s Jewish community would be part of sovereign Israel under the “Deal of the Century.”

Bennett said that a Jewish state without the Tomb of the Patriarchs is like Washington without the Lincoln Memorial. He also spoke against the portion of the Trump plan that calls for the creation of a Palestinian state.

The defense minister noted that “the plan speaks 159 times of a Palestinian state and references Israeli sovereignty” only 13 times.

“I strongly oppose the giving of an even one inch of land to the Arabs,” Bennett said.

He explained that he has authorized an elevator project for the Tomb of the Patriarchs to make it accessible for people with disabilities, but the project now needs Netanyahu’s approval.

Netanyahu said that he was approving the elevator project. He also spoke of the Trump peace plan as an opportunity for Israel that could only be maximized if he was elected prime minister, and he urged everyone to vote for his Likud Party.

Pounding on the podium and raising his voice, Netanyahu said that those who want a right-wing government must vote Likud. “Who built Har Homa? Now it has 40,000 [residents] – and yesterday we said we would add another 10,000 people, and this week a tender will be issued for 1,000 units in Givat Hamatos.”

He also promised that the mapping process to determine West Bank territory over which sovereignty would be applied would begin this week.