Landslide Knesset vote approves non-binding proposal to annex West Bank
Israel’s Knesset approved a motion calling for the annexation of the occupied West Bank on Wednesday, the latest move in an ongoing campaign to strengthen Israel's hold on the occupied Palestinian territory.
The proposal is non-binding and serves largely as a symbolic gesture that does not affect the legal status of the West Bank but will help build momentum towards a possible move on the territory, which has been occupied by Israel since 1967.
“This move would make it clear to the world that Israel will not accept solutions that involve dangerous territorial concessions, and that it is committed to its future as a secure Jewish state,” the proposal says.
Besides receiving broad support across the Likud coalition, the conseravtive Yisrael Beiteinu party also voted in favour of the motion, along with independent MK Idan Roll and far-right Noam party leader Avi Maoz.
The motion was initiated by Likud member Dan Illouz and three other MKs, including Minister for Settlements Orit Strook.
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Last year a similar motion rejecting Palestinian statehood received emphatic cross-party support, passing 68-9.
“The land of Israel belongs to the people of Israel,” declared Knesset speaker Amir Ohana following the vote.
'Window of opportunity'
The vote comes amid heightened international pressure surrounding the issue of Palestinian statehood, with world leaders set to meet at an international summit on the topic at the UN headquarters in New York in September.
In May, Israel’s Strategic Affairs Minister Ron Dermer warned the UK and France that recognition of a Palestinian state would be met by unilateral Israeli action towards annexation, according to anonymous diplomatic sources cited by Haaretz.
The vote follows a conference hosted on Monday by five Likud MKs titled “Sovereignty Now – Realizing the Window of Opportunity to Apply Sovereignty to Judea and Samaria,” organised in cooperation with an NGO called The Sovereignty Movement.
Senior Israeli MKs and government officials have also been ramping up formal discussions around the annexation of the Gaza Strip amid Israel’s ongoing war on the enclave.
Another Knesset conference was hosted on Tuesday by the far-right Israeli Finance Minister Bazael Smotrich, titled “The Gaza Riviera - From Vision to Reality".
“We will occupy Gaza and make it an inseparable part of Israel," Smotrich said at the conference.
Israeli officials have made no secret of their hope of expelling Palestinians from Gaza and establishing Israeli rule over the territory.
Addressing the Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee in May, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Israeli forces are “destroying more and more homes” and that the “only inevitable outcome will be the wish of Gazans to emigrate outside of the Gaza Strip”, Maariv reported.
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