Jerusalem and the Golan Heights received more support for the sometimes faltering status of their Israeli sovereignty on Wednesday. The Knesset voted overwhelmingly to apply the "Rule of Continuity" to legislation ensuring that a withdrawal from those areas – or any change in Israel’s borders - would require both an outright 61-MK majority and a national referendum. The bill requiring these measures passed its first reading in the previous Knesset, and supporters wished to ensure that it would not have to "start all over" in the current Knesset. However, this attempt was thwarted several weeks ago by the Likud's Minister Dan Meridor in the Ministerial Committee for Legislation – the committee that overturned this very decision on Tuesday, paving the way for today’s Knesset vote. The Knesset voted by a 68-22 margin not to require the legislation to “start all over.” Among the supporters, surprisingly, was Meridor himself. Defense Minister Ehud Barak of Labor also voted in favor, as a member of the government, but said that a referendum is not necessary. The proposal is now back to where it was at the end of the last Knesset: Having passed its first Knesset reading, it must now be reviewed by a Knesset committee, most likely Foreign Affairs and Defense. If it passes there, it will be placed on the agenda for two final Knesset votes. Minister Uzi Landau said the referendum bill “states something very simple: Every far-reaching decision on a change in Israel’s sovereignty... must be accepted by a clear majority of the nation and the public, without secret deals that the government might be able to make with MKs to get them to support it.” Sammy Bar-Lev, mayor of the Golan’s only city, Katzrin, told Arutz 7 , “This bill guarantees that the sovereignty of the state will be watched over not by politicians, but by the citizens. It is very important, and we are confident that it will be passed into law.” Avigdor Kahalani, co-leader of the now-defunct political party The Third Way that strongly opposed a Golan withdrawal, said, “We must ensure that no Jew is forced to leave the Golan, and that Israel [continues to] have control of the high places there. Other issues, such as whether we might lease it from the Syrians for a few decades, can be negotiated.”
