ISRAEL’S FOREIGN minister Avigdor Lieberman has threatened to pull his party out of the government if Israel demolishes illegal West Bank outposts or transfers tax revenues to the Palestinian Authority.
Addressing Knesset members from his Yisrael Beiteinu party, the hardline foreign minister named two large West Bank outposts threatened with demolition. “Dismantling Migron and Givat Asaf would be grounds for dismantling the government.” He also predicted that some members of prime minister Binyamin Netanyahu’s ruling Likud party would also quit the coalition if the outposts were demolished.
Settlers have set up scores of outposts on West Bank hilltops, which, unlike the 120 veteran Jewish settlements, were not authorised by Israeli governments. The international community considers all West Bank Jewish communities illegal.
The Israeli high court has ordered Migron, north of Jerusalem, to be demolished by March 2012. “Migron is a community where children were born and later joined the army,” Mr Lieberman said, “so how can it be considered illegal?” Yisrael Beiteinu, with 15 out of 120 Knesset members, is the second largest member of Mr Netanyahu’s governing coalition.
With the next general election still two years away Mr Netanyahu’s coalition remains relatively stable, certainly by Israeli standards, but if Yisrael Beiteinu quit the government, early elections would be almost inevitable.
Mr Lieberman also warned that the transfer to the Palestinians of tax money collected on their behalf by Israel was another “red line” for his party. Israel held up the transfer of €73 million to the Palestinian Authority (PA) earlier this month after UN cultural organisation Unesco accepted Palestine as a member state.
Mr Lieberman said Israel should keep the money in response to Palestinian actions.
“The PA is going to join a Hamas government . . . they’ve given a $5,000 grant to every one of the terrorists freed in the Shalit deal.”