Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu proposed annexing a significant portion of the West Bank, a disputed landlocked territory that both Israelis and Palestinians claim.
Netanyahu, who has just started his fifth term as Israel’s prime minister, previously pledged to move forward with plans to annex Israeli settlements in the West Bank, setting July 1 as a provisional deadline to begin the process.
In recent discussions, he has raised the idea of annexing 30% of the West Bank, according to Axios, along with other options that include “a more symbolic annexation of a small amount of land.”
Defense Minister Benny Gantz and Foreign Minister Gabi Ashkenazi told Netanyahu they are opposed to the annexation of any area that houses Palestinian residents, the outlet reported.
President Donald Trump and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu shake hands as they walk through the colonnade before a meeting of the Oval Office at the White House on March 25, 2019 in Washington, DC.
Drew Angerer / Getty Images
But Netanyahu’s push to annex territory in the West Bank experienced a delay on Wednesday, as the day passed without a formal announcement.
According to The New York Times, Netanyahu now hopes to gain approval from the Trump administration before going ahead with plans to avoid criticism from international observers, many of whom believe that Israel’s acquisition of the disputed territory would violate international law.
According to Reuters, aides to President Donald Trump, including his son-in-law Jared Kushner, have been discussing plans for annexation and whether or not to green-light the idea. However, a decision has yet to be made.
Netanyahu’s calls for annexation are aligned with the Trump administration’s Middle East peace plan that was unveiled in January.
The peace plan does not require uprooting Palestinians or Israelis from the West Bank from their homes; instead, it would recognize most of the Israeli settlements in the West Bank as part of Israel, and would give a future Palestinian state near the Gaza Strip, made up primarily of desert, to compensate for the loss of land.
—JTA | Jewish News (@JTAnews) January 29, 2020
The Palestinians rejected the deal, saying Trump simply “copied and pasted” elements favorable to Netanyahu.
Netanyahu on Tuesday said he would continue working on annexation plans “in the coming days.”
What is the West Bank?
New houses under construction in 2003 in the Ma’ale Adumim Jewish settlement, located in the West Bank.
Marco Di Lauro / Getty Images
The West Bank is a territory west of the Jordan River that was occupied by Israel in 1967 after the Six Day War.
During a pair of agreements known as the Oslo Accords, which were signed in the 1990s, Israel and Palestinian leaders agreed to divide the land in the West Bank in search of peace.
The land was divided into three disjointed administrative divisions: Area A, controlled by the Palestinian Authority; Area B, controlled by the Palestinian Authority and Israel; and Area C, controlled by Israel.
According to the BBC, an estimated 2.1 to 3 million Palestinians live in the West Bank, while around 430,000 Israelis also live in the West Bank in 132 settlements and dozens of smaller “outposts”.
A map of Israel, the West Bank and the Gaza Strip.
Business Insider / Google Maps
Israel believes that the West Bank is part of the Biblical kingdom of Israel, and says that there has always been a Jewish presence in the territory.
It has continued to build new settlements in recent years.
Palestinians have also had a historic presence in the West Bank and expressed their wish that the land be part of a future Palestinian state.
Tens of thousands of Palestinians were displaced from their homes in the West Bank cities, including Tulkarem and Qalqilya, when Israel occupied the land in 1967.
International observers say Israeli settlements in the West Bank violate the Fourth Geneva Convention, which prohibits the transfer of a population to occupied land as a result of armed conflict.
Israel disputes this. The United States changed its position in 2019, saying that Israeli settlements “were not inconsistent with international law.”
Netanyahu’s annexation plan largely condemned
Netanyahu next to a map of the Jordan Valley in Ramat Gan, near Tel Aviv, on September 10, 2019.
MENAHEM KAHANA / AFP via Getty Images
Human rights groups have criticized Netanyahu’s plans, saying they would derail any possibility of peace between Israelis and Palestinians.
Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas said in May that he would end “all agreements” with Israel and the United States on annexation plans.
Palestinian Prime Minister Mohammad Shtayyeh said in June that Palestinians will declare statehood over the West Bank and Gaza if Netanyahu goes ahead with plans for annexation.
Meanwhile, some Israeli settlers, a diverse group of secular and religious Jews, have voiced their support and opposition to Netanyahu’s controversial plan.
United Nations experts said last month that if Israel annexed Palestinian-occupied parts of the West Bank, it would “violate international law.”
“The annexation of the occupied territory is a serious violation of the United Nations Charter and the Geneva Conventions,” 47 independent experts appointed by the UN Human Rights Council said in a statement.
The statement said the 53-year-old Israeli occupation of Palestinian land “is the source of profound human rights violations” and has led to “denial of the right of Palestinian self-determination.”
A top UAE ambassador also wrote a rare op-ed in a major Hebrew-language newspaper, Yedioth Ahronoth, earlier this month warning of plans to unilaterally annex parts of the West Bank. It was the first time that a Gulf diplomat had written in an Israeli newspaper.
“It will ignite violence and awaken extremists,” wrote Yousef Al-Otaiba, the UAE’s ambassador to the United States.
In an opinion piece in the same Israeli newspaper last Wednesday, British Prime Minister Boris Johnson said an Israeli annexation in the West Bank “would represent a violation of international law.”
“As a lifelong friend, admirer, and supporter of Israel, I fear that these proposals will fail in their goal of securing Israel’s borders and run counter to Israel’s own long-term interests,” Johnson wrote.
Other Israeli allies, including Germany, France and Australia, also warned against the measure.
According to a poll conducted by the Brookings Institute, the majority of Democratic and independent respondents expressed “unfavorable” opinions about the plan, while the majority of Republicans expressed a “favorable” opinion.
