Israel's parliament was on Monday to vote on a bill requiring a national referendum be held before any withdrawal from occupied east Jerusalem or the Golan Heights, a spokesman said.

"The text will be discussed on Monday and put to its second and third readings before the Knesset in order to be definitely adopted," parliamentary spokesman Giora Pordes told AFP.

The session was to open at 4:00 pm (1400 GMT) with the draft bill likely to pass easily, Israeli press and radio reports said. The deliberations were expected to continue well into the evening.

Under terms of the bill, any move to withdraw from territories annexed by Israel after the 1967 Middle East war must first be approved by the Knesset, then put to a national referendum within the following six months.

But if such a move won an overwhelming majority of more than two thirds in the 120-member Knesset, there would be no need to put it to a referendum.

East Jerusalem was annexed shortly after the 1967 war, while the Golan Heights was formally annexed in 1981.

The bill, which was tabled by Yariv Levin, an MP with the rightwing Likud party of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, passed its first reading on October 11. Should it pass Monday's vote, it will become law.

Any pullout from Arab east Jerusalem would only occur as part of a peace deal, but talks between Israel and the Palestinians are currently suspended over a dispute about Jewish settlement building.

Similarly, any withdrawal from the Golan Heights was only likely to take place within the framework of a peace deal with Syria, but both countries remain technically at war and there are no talks under way.

 

(Source: AFP)