The uproar that followed the actors’ boycott of the Ariel Cultural Center has refused to die down. On the eve of the official opening of the theater, which is scheduled for today, 35 MKs, ministers and deputy ministers from a majority of the Knesset factions signed a letter that was sent to Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu in which they called for Israeli sovereignty to be extended to Ariel immediately.

“Annexation is the apposite response to the boycott and to the delegitimization of Jewish settlement in Ariel,” read the letter that was sponsored by MK Tzippi Hotovely (Likud). The letter was signed by ministers, deputy ministers and MKs from most of the Knesset factions, both from the coalition and the opposition. Among the signatories are Tourism Minister Stas Misezhnikov (Yisrael Beiteinu), Coalition Chairman Zeev Elkin, Deputy Minister Ayoub Kara, Gila Gamliel and Lea Ness, as well as other MKs from the Likud, Yisrael Beiteinu, Shas, UTJ, the Jewish Home and the National Union Party. Three MKs from Kadima (Yulia Shamalov-Berkovich, Marina Solodkin and Robert Tiviaev) also signed the letter.

The letter further argued that “the extremist voices that view Ariel as settlement in a foreign land and in occupied territory have to be stopped by a statement of principle by the government of Israel, establishing that Ariel is an inseparable part of the sovereign State of Israel. An initiative of that sort will reflect the broad Israeli consensus surrounding the city Ariel, and will stymie the attempt to erode the legitimacy of settlement in tracts of our land.” Incidentally, the official opening of the cultural center in the city is scheduled to be held this evening.

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