( IMEMC and Middle East Monitor) – On Wednesday the Israeli Knesset approved the preliminary reading of one bill to annex the West Bank and impose Israeli sovereignty over it, and another to impose sovereignty over the Ma’ale Adumim settlement, east of occupied Jerusalem.
Both drafts still must pass three additional readings to become law.
Middle East Monitor reports that Vice President J. D. Vance, in Israel, rejected the bills. “If it was a political stunt, it was a very stupid political stunt, and I personally take some insult to it. The West Bank is not going to be annexed by Israel,” Vance told reporters in Tel Aviv.
“The policy of the Trump administration is that the West Bank will not be annexed by Israel. That will continue to be our policy,” he added.
Vance said that he was told that the Knesset voting was “a symbolic vote.”
“If people want to take symbolic votes, they can do that. But we certainly weren’t happy about it,” he added.
The spokesman for the Jordanian Foreign Ministry, Fuad Al-Majali, maintained that the Kingdom of Jordan rejects and denounces the occupation’s plan to impose sovereignty over the West Bank.
The Ministry called the move a flagrant violation of international law and UN Security Council resolutions, especially Resolution 2334 which affirms that “the establishment by Israel of settlements in the Palestinian territory occupied since 1967, including East Jerusalem, has no legal validity and constitutes a flagrant violation under international law.”
Al-Majali urged the international community to compel Israel to cease the dangerous escalation in the occupied West Bank, and to fulfill the rights of the Palestinian people to establish an independent state on their land, adding that this is the only way to achieve a just and comprehensive peace.
The Qatari Ministry of Foreign Affairs released a statement calling on the international community to fulfil its legal and moral duty to pressure the Israeli occupation to cease its settlement schemes in the occupied West Bank.
The statement added that the state of Qatar affirms that any attempt to impose Israeli sovereignty over the West Bank would be a violation of international law and resolutions.
In the United States, forty-six Democratic senators called on President Donald Trump to oppose the Israeli plan to annex the occupied West Bank.
The Axios news website published the letter sent to President Trump, signed by senators Bernie Sanders, Elizabeth Warren, Chuck Schumer, and Adam Schiff.
The letter urged the Trump administration to “promote steps to preserve the viability of a two-state solution and the success of the Abraham Accords”
It continued “Since your plan for Gaza does not address the West Bank, it is imperative that your Administration reinforce your comments and emphasize its opposition to annexation.”
Photo of Bethlehem, West Bank, by Tariq Alisubh on Unsplash
For its part, the Islamic Resistance Movement Hamas released a statement declaring that “the Zionist occupation Knesset’s vote on the two bills to annex the West Bank and impose sovereignty over the so-called Ma’ale Adumim settlement, in the preliminary reading, reflects the ugly face of the colonial occupation.”
The Palestinian Foreign Ministry condemned the move and declared that the occupied Palestinian territories, including the West Bank, East Jerusalem, and Gaza are one geographical unit, and that Israel has no sovereignty over them.
The Palestinian National Liberation Movement Fatah said that the Knesset vote will not erase the historical facts or destroy the legitimate rights of our people, to self-determination and the establishment of a sovereign Palestinian state with Jerusalem as its capital.
Additionally, Türkiye, Kuwait and Saudi Arabia released statements condemning the Knesset vote to impose sovereignty over the occupied West Bank.
Via IMEMC
Licensed under a Creative Commons Attr-NonCom 4.0 International License.. The IMEMC article has been bolstered with quotes from J. D. Vance via the Middle East Monitor, also licensed under a Creative Commons Attr-NonCom 4.0 International License..
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