JERUSALEM, Israel – The October 7th, 2023, murders and abductions by Hamas changed the lives of all Israelis. For Oren Seliger, it caused him to walk away from a very successful career in high-tech. He changed tracks and pivoted to advancing the stability and security in biblical Judea and Samaria, also known as the West Bank, where he now lives.
CBN News has reported on a burgeoning sovereignty movement in Israel, which has become more popular as a growing number of Israelis have serious doubts about the Palestinians’ willingness to live beside any state controlled by Jews. Frequent polls have shown a large majority of West Bank Palestinians approve of the Hamas attacks on Israelis.
We asked Seliger about the status of the sovereignty movement, which would put the Jewish communities of the West Bank under civilian control for the first time in modern Israel’s history. Judea, Samaria, and the Jordan Valley have been under military administration of the Israel Defense Forces.
The text of our interview with Seliger is below, and you can watch the interview by clicking on the video above.
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CHRIS MITCHELL: Tell us where the sovereignty movement is right now. We understand that just a few weeks ago, the Knesset voted in a declaration to declare sovereignty in Judea, Samaria, and the Jordan Valley. So where is it now?
OREN SELIGER: So it’s about time because every Israeli living in Judea and Samaria should have the same rights and abilities as Israelis living in pre-1967 Israel, in the sense that my prime minister should not be the military, it should be Netanyahu. I should have the same services and capabilities and security, etc..
We also know that after October 7th, the dream, or the fantasy, of a second Palestinian state between Iraq and the ocean is not feasible.
We understand that from the polling that’s done, not by us but by the PA (Palestinian Authority), in the UN, that the support for the October 7th Hamas raid on the Gaza envelope in Judea and Samaria is even higher than it is in Gaza. The dream and the fantasy of doing a similar attack from Judea and Samaria into central Israel is higher than it ever has been.
CM: This is among the Palestinians.
OS: Among the Palestinians, obviously, and we understand that there’s a need to make sure that doesn’t happen. We have to basically end that dream and end that fantasy. The way to do that is to make it clear that we are here and we are here to stay. We do that by declaring sovereignty in Judea and Samaria.
That, A, resolves the issue of citizens living in Judea and Samaria getting the same rights, etc., and services as the rest of the country. But it also puts an end to the dream of a second Palestinian state. And now the Palestinians or the Arabs living in Judea and Samaria can make a decision whether they want to somehow be part of this. And there are different solutions.
One of the solutions is the “Mordechai Kedar” solution, which I’m sure you’ve heard, the “Emirates solution”, where you have different city-states. And one of the things, by the way, that people may not know is that there is really no connection between the Arabs living across Judea and Samaria. The Arabs living in the southern Judea and Samaria have Egyptian family names.
Those living in Jenin and Tulkarem (in the northern West Bank) have Syrian family names. Arab families living in Jenin don’t marry into families living in Hebron because they’re different tribes. They don’t intermarry. And that’s why you’ll see the sheikh from Hebron came forward and said, I want to have a city-state. I will not be part of the PA. We will have zero tolerance for terror. I want my people to be in my city to be able to work in Israel. We will have zero tolerance. We will change our educational system. We don’t believe in the Palestinian Authority. And these were secret conversations happening over six months already, and now they’ve come out.
There’s another sheikh in Jericho who wants to do the same thing. And again, I’m not sure what that solution will be in the end. But first of all, our Knesset has to make a decision that the declaration of sovereignty now becomes actual law.
And then we’ll have various committees within the Knesset deciding, how do we roll that out? Then we roll that out sovereignty on the entire Judea and Samaria. Do we include just the Jewish settlements and areas, or do we also include the Arab areas, or how do we engage with that, and how do we move that forward? We don’t want to rule a million and a half or 1.2 million Arabs that live today in Judea and Samaria.
We want them to have self-governance, but in an understanding that it’s a civilian government and not a national government. And they have to accept that. Declaring sovereignty makes that clear to them that there’s no opportunity in the future going forward for a Palestinian state, another second Palestinian state between Iraq and the ocean, and thereby accept this. If you don’t, you can join your brethren from Gaza who, as was announced, there are multiple countries that will be taking them in, and they’ll have opportunities outside of the country if that’s what they want to do.
CM: Okay. Oren Seliger, thanks for joining us, thanks for bringing us up to date on sovereignty.
OS: It was a pleasure. Thank you for having me.
