ISRAEL’S KNESSET has passed a law requiring that a referendum be held to ratify any peace agreement which involves Israel relinquishing territory. With negotiations deadlocked on both the Palestinian and Syrian tracks, the new law places an additional obstacle in the way of Middle East peace efforts.
The Knesset voted 65-33 in favour of the referendum Bill. Prime minister Binyamin Netanyahu said the law would “prevent the approval of an irresponsible agreement on the one hand, and offer strong public support to any agreement that guarantees our national interests on the other hand.”
Under the new law, any peace agreement with Syria which includes returning the occupied Golan Heights or a deal with the Palestinians which includes East Jerusalem, also captured during the 1967 Arab-Israeli war, will be put to the people.
The law does not cover the West Bank, which, unlike the Golan Heights and east Jerusalem, was not annexed by Israel. Any territorial concessions by Israel already require a special two-thirds Knesset majority. A referendum will now also be required if fewer than 80 of the 120 Knesset members back a land-for-peace deal. Such a development would mark the first time Israelis have been asked to vote in a referendum.
The new law divided the Labour faction, which is part of the government coalition, and Kadima, the centrist opposition party.
Knesset member Yariv Levin from the ruling Likud party, who introduced the Bill, said it was of the utmost national importance for retaining the unity of the people. “The Bill expresses the need to ensure that any fateful, irreversible decision on giving up parts of the homeland on which the state’s sovereignty has been enacted, will no longer be done through wheeling and dealing and recruiting parliamentary support via other issues, as has sadly happened in the past,” he said.
Tzipi Livni, the leader of the opposition, said the law was introduced because Mr Netanyahu was a weak prime minister, incapable of taking decisions. “These kinds of decisions must be made by a leadership which understands the magnitude of the problems and is exposed to all aspects, she said. “This proposal binds the ability of leaders to make decisions, by expecting the people to make decisions which they don’t have the tools to make.”
Dov Khenin, a Knesset member from the left-wing Hadash party, said the Bill increased the risk of war with the Arab world.
“The government is seeking to convey a clear message about the refusal to continue with the Arab peace initiative and the rejection of every other attempt to reach a peace deal with Syria and the Palestinians.” Opinion polls show that most Israelis oppose a full withdrawal from the Golan Heights in return for peace with Syria.
After the first reading of the Bill was approved last December, an unnamed Syrian source told BBC Arabic radio that “Israel cannot hold a referendum on land that it does not own”. Indirect peace talks between Israel and Syria, via Turkish mediators, broke down when Israel invaded Gaza in December 2008.