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Knesset legislators vote 71-13 in favor of annexation, raising questions about the future of a Palestinian state.
The Israeli Parliament has approved a symbolic measure calling for annexed the occupied West Bank.
Knesset legislators voted 71-13 in favor of the motion on Wednesday, a non -binding vote which calls for “the application of Israeli sovereignty to Judea, Samaria and the Jordan Valley” – Israeli terms for the region.
He declared that the annexation of the West Bank “will strengthen the State of Israel, its security and prevent any question of the fundamental right of the Jewish people to peace and security in their homeland”.
The request, advanced by the coalition of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is declarative and has no direct legal involvement, although it can place the question of annexation on the agenda of future debates in Parliament.
The idea was initially presented last year by the Minister of Finance of Israel, Bezalel Smotrich, who himself lives in an illegal Israeli colony and held a position in the Israeli Ministry of Defense, where he oversees the administration of the West Bank and his regulations.
The West Bank, as well as the Gaza and East Jerusalem Strip, have been under Israeli occupation since 1967. Since then, Israeli establishments have been extended, although they have been illegal under international law and, in the case of regulation outposts, Israeli law.
Palestinian leaders want the three territories for a future state. Some 3 million Palestinians and more than 500,000 Israeli settlers are currently resident in the West Bank.
The annexation of the West Bank could make it impossible to create a viable Palestinian State, which is considered internationally as the most realistic means of resolving the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
Last year, the Israeli Parliament approved a similar symbolic movement declaring opposition to the establishment of a Palestinian State.
Hussein Al-Sheikh, assistant to the president of the Palestinian Authority Mahmoud Abbas, said that the request was “a direct aggression against the rights of the Palestinian people”, which “undermines the prospects of peace, stability and solution to two states”.
“These unilateral Israeli actions clearly violate international law and the current international consensus concerning the status of Palestinian territories, including the West Bank,” he wrote in an article on X.
The Palestinian Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Expatriates said in a statement that he strongly rejected any request for annexation.
The ministry stressed that “colonial measures” strengthen an apartheid system in the West Bank and reflect a “flagrant contempt” for many United Nations resolutions and the advisory opinion of the International Court of Justice (ICJ), which was published in July 2024.
The declaration, disseminated by the official Palestinian press agency of WAFA, also warned that such actions deliberately found the prospects for implementing a two -state solution.
The ministry has added that if the expansion of the regulations continues, a de facto annexation already occurs daily.
After the mortal war of Israel against Gaza, Israeli forces intensified the attacks on the Palestinian towns and villages of the occupied West Bank, moved by thousands of Palestinians and killing hundreds. The colonists, often supported by Israeli soldiers, also increased the assault against the Palestinians, their land and their property.
