Netanyahu said to tell Likud MKs: West Bank annexation on for July
Israeli party meeting at the Knesset in Jerusalem on May 25, 2020.
Times of Israel report, 25 May 2020:
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Monday said he has set a July date for when Israel will extend its sovereignty to areas of the West Bank, and informed his Likud lawmakers he has no intention of changing it, Hebrew media reported.
At the opening of his Likud faction’s weekly meeting at the Knesset, Netanyahu said there has never been a better time in the country’s history to apply sovereignty, which is tantamount to annexation, to these areas.
“We have an opportunity that hasn’t existed since 1948 to apply sovereignty in a wise way and as a diplomatic step in Judea and Samaria, and we will not let this opportunity pass,” Netanyahu said, referring to the year the State of Israel was established and using the biblical names for the West Bank territory.
Later, during the part of the meeting that was closed to media, Netanyahu told the gathered MKs, “We have a target date in July to apply sovereignty and we will not change it,” according to Hebrew media reports.
The move would be coordinated with the US, in accordance with the Middle East plan US President Donald Trump unveiled in January, which endorsed extending Israeli sovereignty over roughly 30 percent of the West Bank.
However, the entire peace plan has been rejected by the Palestinians, who seek the West Bank as territory for a future Palestinian state.
Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas announced last week that he was cutting off all security cooperation with Israel because of Netanyahu’s declared intentions to annex settlements and the strategic Jordan Valley.
There has also been increasing concern — and warnings to Israel — from the international community against annexation.
In recent days even Trump administration officials have appeared to seek to dampen expectations that Washington will quickly green-light the move without any progress in negotiations between Israel and the Palestinians.
The State Department’s chief spokesperson said earlier this month that any action should be part of discussions between Israel and the Palestinians on the Trump administration’s peace plan.