Israel will build a power plant in the West Bank – the first since it regained control of the territory 58 years ago – Energy Minister Eli Cohen announced on Tuesday.
The facility, slated for construction near the Palestinian village of Rantis in the Binyamin region, is a “strategic necessity for Israel’s energy sector,” Cohen said in a statement. “Around half a million residents live in this area, so after 50 years, this is a long-overdue step.”
The project will “put [the West Bank] on the map in the fields of energy and infrastructure, improve residents’ quality of life and energy security, and accelerate economic development in the region,” Cohen said.
He toured the area alongside Israel Ganz, head of the Binyamin Regional Council, and Likud MK Nissim Vaturi, who chairs the Knesset committee overseeing the Israeli Citizens’ Fund, which manages government revenues from the levy on oil and natural gas profits.
Vaturi said he plans to bring the power plant proposal before the Knesset Committee for Oversight of the Israeli Citizens’ Fund within two months.
"Connecting the gas pipeline to Binyamin will bring de facto sovereignty to [the West Bank], our ancestral homeland," he stated, adding: "I am proud to be part of this historic moment, which will lead to significant progress in the development and integration of [the West Bank]."
However, the plan is likely to attract criticism both at home and abroad given the lawmakers’ comments suggesting it is part of the project to exert what Jerusalem calls “Israeli sovereignty” over the West Bank.
This is based on the argument that the territory should be effectively absorbed into the Israeli state, granting the Jewish State full governmental authority over the region.
Opponents, though, argue that this would amount to illegal annexation and would violate the existing governance agreement covering the West Bank, which sees the Palestinian Authority govern large sections of the region.
Proponents of a two-state solution suggest that the PA is the most likely partner for Jerusalem under an eventual two-state solution to the Israel-Palestine conflict, which would see it govern an independent Palestinian state from its base in Ramallah.
