Israel’s Sovereignty (Ribonut) Movement Wednesday urged the Netanyahu government not to consider postponing the extension of Israeli law over Judea and Samaria for the sake of securing a normalisation agreement with Saudi Arabia.

The message follows a flurry of reports of intense US diplomatic activity in the direction of a Saudi-Israeli peace deal, and conjecture about a limited window of opportunity for securing an agreement ahead of the 2024 US election year.

In a letter, signed by the organisation’s leaders – Nadia Matar and Yehudit Katsover – the movement warned that while, on the face of it, such a trade-off might appear strategically sensible, it would be calamitous. “Using sovereignty for political leverage strips from the Jewish people its soul, strength and the justice of its cause over its Land.”

The Sovereignty Movement appreciated that an agreement with Saudi Arabia “carries immense significance in economic, regional, security, and other terms, and perhaps also in the creation of a Middle Eastern coalition against the Iranian threat.” Even so, it was vital that it not come “at the expense of our...