A senior Palestinian official lambasted Israel’s preliminary approval of two bills to impose its sovereignty over the occupied West Bank and one of its largest illegal settlements, claiming the plan amounts to “a declaration of war.”
Mouayyad Shaaban, head of the Colonisation and Wall Resistance Commission under the Palestine Liberation Organisation (PLO), told Turkish news agency Anadolu that “no Israeli decision or act can erase the Palestinian identity of the land.”
Shaaban warned that “the decision is dangerous and amounts to a declaration of war, not only on the Palestinian people but also on the United Nations, the Security Council, and all international laws and resolutions.”
He urged Palestinians to “be present across all our land to prove once again to the (Israeli) occupier that this land is ours. No statement or legislation can change that; what matters is what happens on the ground.”
The Palestinian official also called on the international community to “isolate and boycott this extremist Israeli government politically, economically, and militarily, and ban settlers, government leaders, and their associates from entering any country.”
Recalling Israel’s annexation of East Jerusalem after the 1967 Arab-Israeli War, Shaaban said: “Despite that, the minarets of Jerusalem still stand tall, and its people continue to resist. Nothing can erase the Palestinian nature of this land.”
He said the Israeli plan is the result of ongoing expansion over the past two years, noting that “71% of the West Bank is under Israeli control, with more than 912 military gates, checkpoints, and bases, and over 30% of the Jordan Valley is under Israeli authority.”
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Israeli vote draws US criticism
The Knesset’s preliminary approvals came as US Vice President JD Vance visited Tel Aviv, coinciding with a wider diplomatic push to sustain a Gaza ceasefire.
The bill to annex the entire West Bank was introduced by far-right lawmaker Avi Maoz of the Noam party.
The bill to annex the illegal Israeli Ma’ale Adumim settlement, which was built on Palestinian land east of Jerusalem, was submitted by Avigdor Lieberman, leader of the Yisrael Beiteinu party.
The measures passed, with 25 votes to 24 for the West Bank annexation and 32 to 9 for Ma’ale Adumim, and still require three further readings before becoming law.
American Vice President JD Vance said Thursday that a vote by Israeli lawmakers to annex the West Bank was a “very stupid political stunt.”
He told reporters: “Now I actually asked somebody about it, and they told me that it was a symbolic vote, some symbolic vote to recognise or a symbolic vote to annex the West Bank. I mean, what I would say to that is when I asked about it, somebody told me it was a political stunt, that it had no practical significance, it was purely symbolic.”
“I mean look, if it was a political stunt, it was a very stupid political stunt, and I personally take some insult to it. The West Bank is not going to be annexed by Israel,” Vance added.
“The policy of the Trump administration is that the West Bank will not be annexed by Israel. That will continue to be our policy. And if people want to take symbolic votes, they can do that, but we certainly weren’t happy about it.”
Secretary of State Marco Rubio told reporters that Israel’s government vote this week to annex the West Bank would “threaten” the peace process, saying it was not a serious effort but rather one deployed to “embarrass Netanyahu, while the vice president was here.”
Israel divided
Israeli media reported that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s Likud party largely boycotted the votes, dismissing them as a provocation designed to strain relations with Washington.
Only one Likud member, Yuli Edelstein, supported the motion, a decision that cost him his seat on the Knesset’s Foreign Affairs and Defence Committee.
However, key figures in Netanyahu’s coalition, including Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich and National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir, backed the bills.
In a post on X, Smotrich wrote: “Mr Prime Minister, the Knesset has spoken. The people have spoken. The time has come to apply full sovereignty over all the territories of Judea and Samaria – the inheritance of our forefathers – and to promote peace agreements in exchange for peace with our neighbours, from a position of strength.”
Opposition leaders Benny Gantz and Yair Lapid, often branded moderates, also supported annexing Ma’ale Adumim, underscoring the bipartisan pull of the settlement agenda in Israeli politics.
West Bank violence
Palestinians living in the West Bank have faced regular attacks by Israeli settlers and IDF forces which conduct raids, illegal annexations and racist anti-Arab violent assaults.
Three Palestinian farmers were injured on Saturday after being attacked by illegal settlers in the southern part of Nablus, occupied West Bank, according to the official Palestinian news agency Wafa.
Armed Jewish settlers assaulted olive pickers with sticks and dogs in the Wadi al-Hajj Issa area of Aqraba, injuring three and forcing farmers to flee their lands.
In the nearby town of Duma, Israeli soldiers prevented Palestinians from accessing their olive groves, according to the head of the village council, Suleiman Dawabsha.
He said illegal settlers have repeatedly attacked local farmers, stealing olives, vandalizing trees, and grazing livestock on private lands.
Earlier on Friday, a Palestinian teenager died Friday from injuries sustained after being shot by Israeli forces the previous day east of Nablus.
18-year-old Mohammad Ahmad Khamees Abu Hunein succumbed to his wounds after being shot in the back Thursday evening during an Israeli raid on the New Askar refugee camp.
Israeli troops stormed the camp, sparking clashes during which soldiers opened fire on residents, critically wounding Abu Hunein, the agency added.
