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Referendums in Israel have never been held although a 2014 Basic Law provides for a national referendum or a two-thirds Knesset majority (80 members out of 120) prior to any territorial withdrawal has been enacted, [1] For the law to pass in Israel, it must be approved in three separate readings.
The law was enacted in the context of peace talks with Syria, which wants Israel to withdraw from the Golan Heights based on the "land for peace" formula. The Golan Heights were occupied by Israel during the 1967 Six-Day War and were unilaterally annexed in 1981. Because many Israelis oppose a retreat from the Golan Heights, several Knesset members wanted to ensure that any proposal to withdraw from the area would be "approved by the people, without outside considerations, tricks or political bribes" and so they adopted the referendum law.
Israel already has another law mandating a referendum before it can cede any territory under Israeli sovereignty, but the law also states that it would not apply until a Basic Law detailing the procedures for holding a referendum is passed. Originally, the Knesset enacted a law that eliminates the need to enact a Basic Law. However, a High Court of Justice ruling, the referendum-enabling law, which requires territorial concessions to be approved by a national referendum, general elections or a majority of 80 Knesset members, became formally readopted as a Basic Law.
The holding of a referendum has been proposed several times over the course of Israel's history, but none of the proposals has ever succeeded. David Ben-Gurion proposed a referendum on the introduction of a majoritarian electoral system in 1958 to reduce the influence of the National Religious Party. Menachem Begin proposed the introduction of a legislative initiative, which would have allowed 100,000 citizens to demand that a proposed law be submitted to a referendum. The referendum was also briefly discussed in the 1970s, when a plebiscite over the future of the West Bank was considered. [2]
More recently, a referendum was proposed in 2005 when Prime minister Ariel Sharon proposed Israel's unilateral disengagement plan from the Gaza Strip. Israeli settlers in the Gaza Strip who were opposed to the abandonment of their settlements had asked for a national referendum to be held on the plan. Sharon opposed the holding of a referendum, and the law was instead passed through the Knesset. Israel's withdrawal from its Sinai settlements in the 1980s (part of the Egyptian-Israeli Peace Treaty) was also not put to a referendum.
Also, 13 out of 22 members of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's cabinet approved a bill on 28 July 2013 that any peace treaty with the Palestinian Authority that includes withdrawals from territory will be put before an Israeli referendum before enactment. [3] [4]
Israeli settlements or colonies are civilian communities where Israeli citizens live, almost exclusively of Jewish identity or ethnicity, built on lands occupied by Israel since the Six-Day War in 1967. The international community considers Israeli settlements to be illegal under international law, though Israel disputes this.
The Palestinian territories are the two regions of the former British Mandate for Palestine that have been occupied by Israel since the Six-Day War of 1967, namely the West Bank and the Gaza Strip. The International Court of Justice (ICJ) has referred to the West Bank, including East Jerusalem, as "the Occupied Palestinian Territory", and this term was used as the legal definition by the ICJ in its advisory opinion of July 2004. The term occupied Palestinian territory was used by the United Nations and other international organizations between October 1999 and December 2012 to refer to areas controlled by the Palestinian National Authority, but from 2012, when Palestine was admitted as one of its non-member observer states, the United Nations started using exclusively the name State of Palestine. The European Union (EU) also uses the term "occupied Palestinian territory". The government of Israel and its supporters use the label "disputed territories" instead.
Likud, officially known as Likud – National Liberal Movement, is a major right-wing political party in Israel. It was founded in 1973 by Menachem Begin and Ariel Sharon in an alliance with several right-wing parties. Likud's landslide victory in the 1977 elections was a major turning point in the country's political history, marking the first time the left had lost power. In addition, it was the first time in Israel that a right-wing party won the plurality of the votes. After ruling the country for most of the 1980s, the party lost the Knesset election in 1992. Likud's candidate Benjamin Netanyahu won the vote for Prime Minister in 1996 and was given the task of forming a government after the 1996 elections. Netanyahu's government fell apart after a vote of no confidence, which led to elections being called in 1999 and Likud losing power to the One Israel coalition led by Ehud Barak.
The National Religious Party was a political party in Israel representing the religious Zionist movement.
In 2005, 21 Israeli settlements in the Gaza Strip were unilaterally dismantled and Israeli settlers and army evacuated from inside the Gaza Strip.
The Philadelphi Route, also called Philadelphi Corridor, is a narrow strip of land, 14 km in length, situated along the entirety of the border between Gaza Strip and Egypt. Under the provisions of the Egypt–Israel peace treaty of 1979, it was established as a buffer zone controlled and patrolled by Israeli forces. One purpose of the Philadelphi Route was to prevent the movement of illegal materials and people between Egypt and the Gaza Strip. Palestinians, in cooperation with some Egyptians, have built smuggling tunnels under the Philadelphi Route to move these into the Gaza Strip.
The Green Line, (pre-)1967 border, or 1949 Armistice border is the demarcation line set out in the 1949 Armistice Agreements between the armies of Israel and those of its neighbors after the 1948 Arab–Israeli War. It served as the de facto borders of the State of Israel from 1949 until the Six-Day War in 1967, and continues to represent Israel’s internationally recognized borders with the two Palestinian territories: the West Bank and the Gaza Strip.
Israeli-occupied territories are the lands that were captured and occupied by Israel during the Six-Day War of 1967. While the term is currently applied to the Palestinian territories and the Golan Heights, it has also been used to refer to areas that were formerly occupied by Israel, namely the Sinai Peninsula and southern Lebanon. Prior to Israel's victory in the Six-Day War, occupation of the Palestinian territories was split between Egypt and Jordan, with the former having occupied the Gaza Strip and the latter having annexed the West Bank; the Sinai Peninsula and the Golan Heights were under the sovereignty of Egypt and Syria, respectively. The first conjoined usage of the terms "occupied" and "territories" with regard to Israel was in United Nations Security Council Resolution 242, which was drafted in the aftermath of the Six-Day War and called for: "the establishment of a just and lasting peace in the Middle East" to be achieved by "the application of both the following principles: ... Withdrawal of Israeli armed forces from territories occupied in the recent conflict ... Termination of all claims or states of belligerency and respect for and acknowledgment of the sovereignty, territorial integrity and political independence of every State in the area and their right to live in peace within secure and recognized boundaries free from threats or acts of force."
The status of territories captured by Israel is the status of the Gaza Strip, the West Bank, the Golan Heights, and the Sinai Peninsula, all of which were captured by Israel during the 1967 Six-Day War.
Elections for the 17th Knesset were held in Israel on 28 March 2006. The voting resulted in a plurality of seats for the then-new Kadima party, followed by the Labor Party, and a major loss for the Likud party.
The Golan Heights Law is the Israeli law which applies Israel's government and laws to the Golan Heights. It was ratified by the Knesset by a vote of 63―21, on December 14, 1981. Although the law did not use the term, it was considered by the international community and some members of the Israeli opposition as an annexation of the territory and illegitimate.
The modern borders of Israel exist as the result both of past wars and of diplomatic agreements between the State of Israel and its neighbours, as well as an effect of the agreements among colonial powers ruling in the region before Israel's creation. Only two of Israel's five total potential land borders are internationally recognized and uncontested, while the other three remain disputed; the majority of its border disputes are rooted in territorial changes that came about as a result of the 1967 Arab–Israeli War, which saw Israel occupy large swathes of territory from its rivals. Israel's two formally recognized and confirmed borders exist with Egypt and Jordan since the 1979 Egypt–Israel peace treaty and the 1994 Israel–Jordan peace treaty, while its borders with Syria, Lebanon and the Palestinian territories remain internationally defined as contested.
Israel Katz is an Israeli politician and member of the Knesset for Likud, now minister of National Infrastructure, Energy, and Water. He was a member of the Security Cabinet of Israel. Katz has previously served as Minister of Agriculture, Minister of Transportation, Minister of Intelligence, Minister of Foreign Affairs and Minister of Finance.
This is a timeline of the development of and controversy over Israeli settlements. As of January 30, 2022 the West Bank settlement population was 490,493 and the settler population in the Golan Heights was almost 27,000 and in East Jerusalem the settler population was around 220,000.
Events in the year 2004 in Israel.
Politics in Israel are dominated by Zionist parties. They traditionally fall into three camps, the first two being the largest: Labor Zionism, revisionist Zionism, and religious Zionism. There are also several non-Zionist Orthodox religious parties and non-Zionist secular left-wing groups, as well as non-Zionist and anti-Zionist Israeli Arab parties.
The Basic Laws of Israel are fourteen quasi-constitutional laws of the State of Israel, and some of them can only be changed by a supermajority vote in the Knesset. Many of these laws are based on the individual liberties that were outlined in the Israeli Declaration of Independence. The Basic Laws deal with the formation and role of the principal institutions of the state, and with the relations between the state's authorities. They also protect the country's civil rights, although some of these rights were earlier protected at common law by the Supreme Court of Israel. The Basic Law: Human Dignity and Liberty enjoys super-legal status, giving the Supreme Court the authority to disqualify any law contradicting it, as well as protection from Emergency Regulations.
The Golan Heights are a rocky plateau in the Levant region of Western Asia that was captured by Israel from Syria in the 1967 Six-Day War. The international community, with the exception of Israel and the United States, regards the Golan Heights to be Syrian territory held by Israel under military occupation. Following the war, Syria dismissed any negotiations with Israel as part of the Khartoum Resolution.
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