Right-Wing MKs Defy Netanyahu, Advance Yehudah and Shomron Sovereignty Bill

In a political setback for Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, right-wing lawmakers pushed through the preliminary reading of a bill to apply Israeli sovereignty to Jewish communities in Yehudah and Shomron, despite firm opposition from Netanyahu and his Likud party.

All but one Likud MK boycotted the vote. MK Yuli Edelstein broke ranks to back the measure, casting the decisive vote that allowed the bill to narrowly pass 25-24.

The vote comes during the visit of US Vice President JD Vance to Israel and could trigger tensions with the Trump administration, which has opposed annexation efforts.

The legislation still faces three more readings before becoming law. It will now be sent to the Knesset’s Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee for further review.

The bill, proposed by MK Avi Maoz of the Noam party, declares that “the State of Israel will apply its laws and sovereignty to the settlement areas in Yehudah and Shomron, in order to establish the status of these areas as an inseparable part of the sovereign State of Israel.”

In an accompanying statement, Maoz said: “Hakadosh Baruch Hu gave the people of Israel the Land of Israel. Settlement in the Land of Israel is the redemption and national revival, settlement is what makes the Land of Israel flourish after two thousand years of exile. In applying sovereignty to Yehudah and Shomron, we are making a correction that is long overdue. Since the government has been procrastinating, our job as members of Knesset is to do this.”

The bill received backing from the Otzma Yehudit and Religious Zionism parties, as well as United Torah Judaism’s Agudas Yisrael faction.

Separately, a narrower annexation proposal from opposition leader Avigdor Liberman of Yisrael Beytenu — focused on applying sovereignty to Ma’ale Adumim — also passed a preliminary reading by a 32-9 margin.