Was Netanyahu’s controversial visit to Hebron worth election efforts?
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu makes a rare visit to the West Bank city of Hebron, drawing anger among Palestinians who warn against Israel’s efforts to extend sovereignty over Hebron’s Old City.
RAMALLAH, West Bank — Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu announced Sept. 16, just one day before the Israeli elections were held, his intention to annex the West Bank settlement of Kiryat Arba and the Jewish areas in Hebron should he win the elections.
The announcement came after Netanyahu visited Sept. 4 Hebron, in the southern West Bank, where he promised Israelis that they would remain there forever. Also, on Sept. 10, he vowed to announce Israeli sovereignty over the Jordan Valley and the north of the Dead Sea if elected to form the next government.
It seemed clear that Netanyahu’s visit to Hebron under tight military protection was part of his electoral propaganda and an attempt to win the votes of the settlers in the Sept. 17 elections. This also reveals the prime minister’s intentions for Hebron’s Old City, although he has yet to officially declare his intention to impose Israeli sovereignty over it, as he did when he said he would seek to annex the Jordan Valley if he is reelected prime minister. This, however, does not negate the Israeli plans in this direction.
Netanyahu visited Hebron along with Israeli President Reuven Rivlin to commemorate the killing of 67 Jewish settlers during the 1929 Arab riots in Palestine, or the Buraq Uprising, which broke out in the Palestinian territories in protest to the Judaization of Palestine at the hands of Britain and the Zionist movement. Palestinians back then also protested that the Jews were attempting to establish a right to access to the Temple Mount’s Western Wall in Jerusalem, which Muslims consider to be part of Al-Aqsa Mosque, the third-holiest site in Islam.
