Israel (under US pressure) backs down on bills to annex the West Bank

Brussels – Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has ordered the suspension of the legislative process for the annexation of the West Bank that the Israeli Parliament preliminarily approved on Wednesday, 22 October, in defiance of the renewed international efforts for the two-state solution. US Vice President JD Vance, on a visit to Israel, had called the Knesset vote “an insult”. 

The two laws would essentially allow Israel to apply national law in the occupied Palestinian territories. They were preliminarily approved by 25 votes to 24. Vance, on the sidelines of a two-day visit to Israel as part of the implementation of the peace plan for Gaza, showed some irritation: “If it was a political manoeuvre, it was very stupid and I personally consider it an insult.” And he made it clear: “The West Bank will not be annexed by Israel. President Trump’s policy is that the West Bank will not be annexed. That will always be our policy.” 

The Israeli prime minister’s office itself said that Wednesday’s vote had been a “deliberate political provocation” aimed at sowing divisions during the US vice-president’s visit. A provocation that is also likely to cause some embarrassment to the European Parliament, which has accepted the Knesset’s invitation to re-establish relations: a small group of MEPs, part of the delegation for relations with Israel, will visit the Israeli Parliament next week.

Faced with the plan to annex the West Bank, the independent MEP elected with the Democratic Party, Lucia Annunziata, decided not to participate in the intra-parliamentary mission. “The recent approval of the law for the annexation of the West Bank and the continuous and indiscriminate attacks on the United Nations show that the Israeli Parliament is not ready to talk about peace,” Annunziata explained, pointing out that the decision “was taken in agreement with the PD at the national level.