A general view shows the Israeli settlement of Beitar Illit in the Israeli-occupied West Bank
April 7, 2019. REUTERS/Ronen Zvulun
Posted on 04/07/2019 2:52:58 PM PDT by onyx
Palestinians voiced alarm while Israelis weighed the gravity on Sunday of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s sudden election promise to annex Jewish settlements in the occupied West Bank.
Some Israeli commentators saw the right-wing leader’s pledge on Saturday, as Tuesday’s national ballot approaches, as mainly a bid to siphon votes from ultranationalist rivals long advocating annexation.
But after years of resisting far-right calls to formally put West Bank land captured in the 1967 Middle East war under permanent Israeli hold, Netanyahu could be counting on support for a dramatic shift from his close ally, U.S. President Donald Trump.
“Who says that we won’t do it? We are on the way and we are discussing it,” Netanyahu, asked why he had not extended Israeli sovereignty to large West Bank settlements, told Israel’s Channel 12 News.
In March, Trump broke with decades of international consensus by recognizing Israeli sovereignty over the Golan Heights, territory Israel captured from Syria. That followed his December 2017 recognition of Jerusalem as the capital of Israel, and the U.S. embassy’s move to the holy city last May.
Asked in an interview on Friday on Israel’s Channel 13 why he wasn’t pressing Trump now to approve a West Bank settlement status change, Netanyahu replied: “Wait until the next term.”
Taking Netanyahu at his word, Palestinians seeking statehood in the West Bank, Gaza and East Jerusalem called his settlement annexation remarks a violation of international law regarding occupied territory.
“His declaration is not just in the heat of … electioneering campaigns,” said Hanan Ashrawi, a Palestine Liberation Organization official. “This is the end of any chances of peace.”
A spokesman for Hamas, the Islamist militant group that runs the Gaza Strip, said “the response to (Israeli) crimes and foolishness will be met by popular resistance, armed resistance and by all our might”.
But Israeli Education Minister Naftali Bennett, head of the New Right party and author of a plan to annex parts of the West Bank, suggested Netanyahu was simply trawling for votes.
“For the past 10 years, Netanyahu has blocked applying Israeli law to even a centimeter of land,” Bennett tweeted.
In the settlement of Karnei Shomron, spice shop owner Yehezkel Shaul said he believed Netanyahu’s annexation pledge, calling him “the most reliable and honest person”.
At the local high school, Harel Levi, 18, was not so sure.
“It’s an election promise and he’ll find some excuse later,” Levi said.
HEATED ISSUE
Settlements, which Israel’s B’Tselem rights group said cover about 10 percent of the West Bank, are one of the most heated issues in efforts to restart peace talks, frozen since 2014.
After decades of settlement-building, more than 400,000 Israelis now live in the territory, according to Israeli figures. The West Bank is home to some 2.9 million Palestinians, the Palestinian Statistics Bureau says.
A further 212,000 Israeli settlers live in East Jerusalem, according to the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs.
The Palestinians and many countries consider settlements to be illegal under the Geneva conventions, which ban settling on territory occupied in war. Israel disputes this, arguing that the status of the West Bank is still disputed. But unilateral annexation would be far harder to justify, even among allies.
Trump’s predecessors as president publicly discouraged the expansion of settlements, arguing that they made it harder to negotiate a viable Palestinian state, viewed by administrations from both U.S. parties as Israel’s likeliest route to peace.
Palestinians argue that Washington did not do enough in practice to press for settlements to be curbed.
Most peace plan scenarios foresee Israel negotiating to keep some settlements in return for giving other land to the Palestinians. Annexation could take that off the table.
Netanyahu’s annexation promise was met with scepticism by Shaqued Morag, director of Peace Now, an Israeli anti-settlements group that closely monitors their expansion.
“So we must ask, why has Netanyahu said this now?” Morag said. The answer, she told Reuters, was that Netanyahu feared for his political survival and “the times dictate he makes these extreme declarations that he has no intention to follow through on”.
Israel Katz, the acting foreign minister and a member of Netanyahu’s Likud party, said its “great fear” was a split in the right-wing vote that would result in a second-place finish behind the centrist Blue and White faction.
Katz said Likud had to ensure it emerges as the biggest party, to put Netanyahu in the best position to get the nod from Israel’s president to try to put together a governing coalition. No one party has ever won a ruling parliamentary majority on its own in an Israeli election.
He's trading on his close friendship with President Trump and THAT makes me happy! GOOD to see President Trump's popularity is a benefit!!
Take THAT, Obammie and Demonic-Rats! Har!
[Hanan Ashrawi, a Palestine Liberation Organization official]
Well, if there’s any PLO I trust, it’s Hanan Ashrawi. /as if it should be necessary to have an “s” there
Former girlfriend of Peter Jennings who did a special on Jerusalem. (no, I didn’t waste my time on that one - A Gilligan’s Island rerun would have been a better time investment).
I’d rather Netanyahu choose to retire from the premiership and serve as an elder statesman and help groom the next generation of Israeli leaders. He’s too paranoid that someone’s going to oust him from office to serve as a mentor while he’s PM.
If he wins, in three years he will once again dissolve his government and run for reelection on the mantra he’s the only one to protect Israel. And if he wins again, he’ll do this again in six years. It’s his pattern.
Bibi needs to let his people go so the next generation can find their place and voice.
It’s time to pass the baton, Bibi.
The West Bank belongs to Israel, along with all of Jerusalem.
Those are beautiful HOMES, not friggin “settlements”. the only “occupiers” of Jewish land are the Muslims who invaded 1400 years ago. they should have ALL been deported after 1948
Bibi’s had many years to do this — and he c an still do it BEFORE the election. But alas he’s failed. He’s also impeded needed home building — while he’s permitted or even enabled the enemy occupation of significant parts of the Jewish Promised Land. He’s a great talker but ...
It seems to me that is the choice of the Israeli Citizens and if they want him out, he will be gone.
In my opinion, he is the best Israeli PM in my lifetime of following politics {mid 60s until today} and general benny gantz, has balls as big as BBs. Gantz is a general that would do well in obummers army. Check his record.
Gotta love that first line. Talk about a clear distinction between the innate character of two peoples.
Genesis 1:4 And God saw the light, that it was good: and God divided the light from the darkness.
MAGA: Make Ariel Great Again
Gantz showed how smart he is(n’t) when he linked up with Lapid.
Yes!
We should have given the jews Nevada as a homeland even if we had to move every damned brick of the wailing wall over by boat...
They they could fight over MOAB with the Maromons...
/s
It would have been easier ( not joking )
Brits proposed Uganda as a Jewish homeland. No joke.
In The Yiddish Policemen’s Union, they all went to Alaska .
They will squeeze until the PLO drags itself back to negotiations.
The PLO loses land, power, money and influence on a yearly basis. Technology has made their accusations vs Israel a running joke as everything is filmed and dozens and dozens of Israeli cameras meet them at every protest.
Gone are the days where they place hand painted Ambulance signs on station wagons then drive by in rotation around journalists. They’re rapidly running out of retarded children to sacrifice them and blame it on Israel.
Ordinary Palestinians are now beginning to understand that the single biggest obstacle to peace and prosperity is the PLO and Hamas.
The majority opinion agrees with you.
But for all the good he has done for the State of Israel, Bibi Netanyahu is stuck in the past. He knows only war. And this makes him too comfortable with waging it, threatening it, and justifying his premiership on it.
At this point Bibi's three decades long rhetorical mantra may be too ingrained in Israel's social fabric for Israelis to be bold and vote for the possible instead of the status quo.
And, yes, I know it's not up to me. All I can do is watch.
Taking Netanyahu at his word, Palestinians seeking statehood in the West Bank, Gaza and East Jerusalem called his settlement annexation remarks a violation of international law regarding occupied territory.
*************
“international law regarding occupied territory.”
It was occupied alright, but by Transjordan who invaded the territory in 1948. The British gave 77% of the Palestinian Mandate to a Saudi Prince in 1922. The promise was that the remaining area west of the Jordan was to be the Jewish Homeland. In fact Jewish settlers were moved from east of the Jordan, with this promise.
After Transjordan invaded the “West Bank”, it changed its name to Jordan, because Transjordan meant east of the Jordan River, and now they occupied the area west of the Jordan. Tansjordan also gave citizenship to all Arab residents in the occupied area.
The area became known as “The West Bank” in 1967 after Jordan lost it to Israel, after they again attacked Israel.
The occupant identified themselves as Arab or Jordanian prior to 1967. After 1967 they started calling themselves “Palestinians”, a name only the Jewish refugees referred to themselves as prior to the creation of the state of Israel.
“weighed the gravity”? How much did it weigh?
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