Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s Likud party unanimously urged legislators in a non-binding resolution on Sunday to effectively annex Israeli settlements in the occupied West Bank, land that Palestinians want for a future state.
By enacting civilian law over settlements, the move may streamline procedures for their construction and expansion. That land is currently under military jurisdiction and Israel’s defense minister has a final say on building there, Middle East Eye reported.
The settlers are subject to Israeli civilian law.
“The time has come to express our Biblical right to the land,” Public Security Minister Gilad Erdan told a meeting of Likud’s Central Committee, according to the Jerusalem Post.
He added that Israel should not miss the opportunity of having in the White House US President Donald Trump, who Erdan said does not believe settlers are an obstacle to peace. He downplayed the role of the overwhelming majority of the rest of the international community.
“We are telling the world that it doesn’t matter what the nations of the world say, ” Erdan told the crowd. “We must recognize this sovereignty. ”
Trump recognized the holy city as Israel’s capital last month and said that the US would move its embassy from Tel Aviv to the contested city.
Last month, Israel announced a new settlement construction plan, which includes the building of 300,000 housing units in the occupied East Beit-ul-Moqaddas.
Israel’s Channel 10 said at the time that the planned construction was part of the so-called “Greater Jerusalem Bill”, which aims to annex illegal settlements in the occupied West Bank to the Israeli-defined boundaries of the holy city.
Jamal Juma’a, Palestinian activist and coordinator of the Stop the Wall campaign, told MEE, “It’s clear that this is part of the consequences of Trump’s decision concerning Beit-ul-Moqaddas (Jerusalem), this is part of the on-going process of annexation of the West Bank, it is another slap to international law.”
Deemed Illegal
The bill had been expected to be voted on by a ministerial committee in a move that would fast-track its progress through parliament.
Israel occupied the West Bank, including East Beit-ul-Moqaddas, in the Six-Day War of 1967. It later annexed it in a move never recognized by the international community.
It sees the entire city as its indivisible capital, while the Palestinians want the eastern sector as the capital of their future state.
Israeli settlements are deemed illegal under international law and widely seen as the main obstacle to peace.
More than 600,000 Jewish settlers live in the occupied West Bank and annexed East Beit-ul-Moqaddas among 2.9 million Palestinians, with frequent outbreaks of violence.
Likud’s central committee counts around 3,700 members, and according to Israeli media about 1,500 were present for Sunday’s vote.
