US Vice-President JD Vance and Secretary of State Marco Rubio have criticized a move by Israel's parliament towards annexation of the occupied West Bank.
On Wednesday, far-right politicians in the Knesset took the symbolic step of giving preliminary approval to a bill applying Israeli law in the territory, which the Palestinians claim as part of a hoped-for independent state.
At the end of a trip to Israel, Vance branded it a very stupid political stunt. Rubio warned before flying to Israel that annexation would threaten President Trump’s plan to end the conflict in Gaza.
Israel's prime minister called the move a deliberate political provocation by the opposition to sow discord. A statement from Benjamin Netanyahu's office emphasized that his right-wing Likud party and its ultra-Orthodox coalition partners did not vote for the bill, except for one disgruntled member.
The prime minister’s office put out the statement in English after Vance was asked about the vote by reporters before he boarded his plane at Tel Aviv's Ben Gurion airport. If it was a political stunt, it was a very stupid political stunt and I personally take some insult, he said. The West Bank is not going to be annexed by Israel. The policy of the Trump administration is that the West Bank will not be annexed by Israel.
Time magazine also published an interview with President Trump, in which he insisted that annexation would not happen because I gave my word to the Arab countries. He added, Israel would lose all of its support from the United States if that happened.
Israel has constructed approximately 160 settlements in the West Bank since the 1967 Middle East war, which are deemed illegal under international law. Tensions remain high as the Palestinians assert their claim to the land, and moves towards annexation could further escalate conflicts in the region.
