Tzipi Hotovely
Tzipi HotovelyKobi Richter, TPS

Deputy Foreign Minister Tzipi Hotovely (Likud) spoke on Monday at the 15th annual Jerusalem Conference about ongoing legislative efforts to apply Israeli sovereignty to Judea and Samaria.

On Sunday, Israeli Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu postponed a vote on the Sovereignty Bill, due to the precarious security situation on Israel's northern border. The bill would have applied Israeli sovereignty across Judea and Samaria.

"In my last meeting with the Prime Minister, I told him that we have to pass the law applying Israeli sovereignty to Judea and Samaria before the end of our term," Hotovely said.

"We need this law. We always talk about what we don't have - it's time to start talking about what we do have. Instead of saying 'no' to a Palestinian state, we need to say 'yes' to sovereignty. And it's not a declaration. This is the deepest thing the State of Israel can tell its own citizens, and it extends outwards towards other countries.

"We have been in power for forty years. It's time we had a positive narrative. I think sovereignty will be what changes reality."

Hotovely also slammed the Yesh Atid party, telling MK Aliza Lavie (Yesh Atid), "You are not a centrist party. You're a leftist party. And not just on diplomatic issues, either, but also when it comes to questions about Israel's identity, you support turning Israel into 'a country of all its citizens.' [Your MKs] Ofer Shelah, Yael German, and Yair Lapid are all leftists. You can't disguise yourselves in order to draw votes from the right."