Bennett submits bill to make it ‘impossible’ to divide Jerusalem

Education Minister Naftali Bennett formally proposed legislation Sunday that would require a special two-thirds Knesset majority on any decision to divide Jerusalem under a future peace deal with the Palestinians, saying that the bill would effectively make such a move “impossible.”

Bennett, who leads the pro-settlement Jewish Home party, is seeking to amend the Basic Law on Jerusalem so that any future vote to divide the city would require the approval of 80 of the 120 MKs to pass, as opposed to a regular majority.

“The purpose of this law is to unify Jerusalem forever,” Bennett said of his legislation in a statement. “Reaching a majority of 80 MKs in order to divide Jerusalem is impossible and has no feasibility in the Knesset, which is why this law is so important.”

Currently the Jerusalem Law, passed in 1980 and amended in 2000, states: “No authority that is stipulated in the law of the State of Israel or of the Jerusalem Municipality may be transferred either permanently or for an allotted period of time to a foreign body, whether political, governmental or to any other similar type of foreign body.”

 

Read More: Bennett submits bill to make it ‘impossible’ to divide Jerusalem | The Times of Israel