Israeli lawmakers advance bills to annex parts of West Bank amid US opposition
JERUSALEM: Israeli lawmakers voted on Wednesday (Oct 22) to advance two bills seeking to annex parts of the occupied West Bank, a move pushed by far-right ministers but opposed by the United States.
The preliminary votes took place as US Vice President JD Vance visited Israel to bolster a fragile Gaza ceasefire brokered by President Donald Trump, who has made clear that Washington would not support annexation efforts.
“I will not allow Israel to annex the West Bank,” Trump told reporters at the White House in September. “It’s not going to happen.”
Israeli media reported that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu had instructed members of his ruling Likud party to abstain from the vote.
Notably, in a statement, Likud said the measures were “another provocation by the opposition aimed at damaging our relations with the United States.” It added that “true sovereignty will be achieved not through a showy law for the record, but through proper work on the ground.”
BILLS TARGET MAJOR SETTLEMENTS
During a preliminary reading, lawmakers voted to advance two separate proposals. The first, approved by 32 votes to nine, calls for the annexation of Maale Adumim, a large settlement east of Jerusalem that is home to around 40,000 Israelis.
The second bill, which would annex the entire West Bank, passed by a narrower margin of 25 votes to 24.
Far-right members of Netanyahu’s cabinet have openly advocated annexation of the Palestinian territory, which Israel has occupied since 1967.
“The Knesset has spoken. The people have spoken,” Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich wrote on X. “The time has come to impose full sovereignty over all of Judea and Samaria — the inheritance of our ancestors.”
PALESTINIANS, JORDAN CONDEMN MOVE
The Palestinian foreign ministry in Ramallah strongly rejected the votes, calling them “an attempt to annex Palestinian land” and asserting that Israel has no sovereignty over the occupied territories.
“The occupied Palestinian territories in the West Bank, including Jerusalem, and the Gaza Strip constitute a single geographic unit over which Israel has no sovereignty,” the ministry said in a statement reported by the official Wafa news agency.
Jordan’s foreign ministry also condemned the Knesset’s decision, calling it “a blatant violation of international law and a grave undermining of the two-state solution.”
All Israeli settlements in the West Bank are considered illegal under international law.
SETTLEMENT EXPANSION CONTINUES
In August, Israel approved a major settlement project linking Maale Adumim to Jerusalem, a development that the international community has warned could jeopardise prospects for a future Palestinian state.
At a signing ceremony in Maale Adumim in September, Netanyahu reiterated his opposition to Palestinian statehood, declaring: “We are going to fulfil our promise that there will be no Palestinian state. This place belongs to us.”
Excluding Israeli-annexed East Jerusalem, the West Bank is home to about three million Palestinians and more than 500,000 Israeli settlers.
Since the Gaza war erupted in October 2023, violence has also surged across the West Bank, further straining security and diplomatic efforts in the region.
