Settler leader asks Netanyahu to clarify annexation work is not frozen

Yesha Council head David ElHayani has asked the Prime Minister’s Office to clarify that preparatory work for the annexation of the Jordan Valley has not been cancelled.

ElHayani, who is also the Jordan Valley Regional Council head, spoke with the PMO after reading a report in the Hebrew daily Yediiot Ahronot that said that the preparatory work of an inter-ministerial committee to prepare to annex the Jordan Valley had been frozen due to the International Criminal Court chief prosecutor Fatou Bensouda’s statement that such settlement activity could be considered a war crime.

ElHayani said the PMO’s office had assured him that the committee’s work was not frozen.

According to Yediot a meeting of the committee headed PMO Director-General Ronen Peretz was canceled. The committee is made up of representatives from the National Security Council, the IDF, the Civil Administration and the Foreign Ministry.

On Monday, in a video posted on YouTube, Netanyahu swore to annex all the West Bank settlements.

“We are going to bring [secure] US recognition for our sovereignty in the Jordan Valley [and] in all the settlements, those in the blocs and those that are beyond it,” Netanyahu said, as he asked Likud Party members to vote for him in the leadership primary against Likud politician Gideon Sa’ar this Thursday. Sa’ar is considered to be to the right of Netanyahu.

The PMO had no response to a query from The Jerusalem Post on the matter.

Netanyahu first pledged to annex settlements during the last election, promising to apply sovereignty over the Jordan Valley immediately after he forms a government. He has also promised to annex the rest of the settlements.

During the Likud leadership primary race, he has also pledged to do so with the support of the US.

After Bensouda’s statement Transportation Minister Bezalel Smotrich (Bayit Yehudi) called on Netanyahu to annex the Jordan Valley immediately, even though it is a move that would be legally problematic to do during the period of a transitional government.