Knesset set to vote on symbolic motion calling for Israeli annexation of West Bank

Middle East Eye

5 days ago

Israel's Knesset will vote on 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 will 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.
Submitted by a cross-party group of MKs, the motion is supported by Likud member Dan Illouz and Minister for Settlements Orit Strook, a member of the National Religious Party–Religious Zionism bloc, a Likud coalition partner.
Strook's party colleague Simcha Rothman and Yisrael Beiteinu MK Oded Forer are also co-sponsoring the motion.
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Likud ministers Yariv Levin and Shlomo Karhi have both said they will be voting in favour of the motion.
The ultra-orthodox Shas party, which is part of Likud's electoral coalition and have long played kingmaker in the Knesset, have also stated that they will support the motion.
Last year a similar motion rejecting Palestinian statehood received emphatic cross-party support, passing 68-9.
The vote is set to take place at the end of Knesset's final session before its summer recess.
'Window of opportunity'
The proposal 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.
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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.