Israel’s annexation plan for the West Bank: All you need to know

On Wednesday, Netanyahu can start the process of declaring sovereignty over parts of the occupied West Bank. Here’s what you need to know.

Benjamin Netanyahu has repeatedly vowed to annex nearly a third of the occupied West Bank in line with Donald Trump’s highly controversial peace plan released in January.

On Wednesday, the Israeli prime minister can start the process, including bringing the issue to Israel’s cabinet or the parliament, according to a power-sharing deal with coalition partner Benny Gantz.

The act has wide support within Israel but is illegal under international law and extremely controversial.

It has faced a tidal wave of criticism from the Palestinians as well as countries and key bodies, including the United Nations and the European Union. They say it will destroy a two-state solution for the decades-old Israeli-Palestinian conflict and spark a regional crisis.

What is at stake?

The West Bank, East Jerusalem and Gaza have been occupied by Israel since the 1967 Middle East war and are territories that the Palestinians hope will become their future state.

However, Israel sees these areas as theirs, citing biblical, historical and political connections to the land.

And so over the decades, Israeli governments have steadily built and expanded scores of settlements in East Jerusalem and the West Bank.

The UN Security Council has said that the settlements constitute “a flagrant violation under international law”. They violate the Fourth Geneva Convention, which stipulates that a country cannot “deport or transfer parts of its own civilian population into the territory it occupies”.

According to Israeli watchdog Peace Now, there are now nearly 430,000 Israeli settlers living in the occupied West Bank which is home to 2.7 million Palestinians who live under both Palestinian and Israeli military law. Peace Now also estimates there are a further 220,000 Israeli settlers living in occupied East Jerusalem.

Decades of fraught talks between Israel and the Palestinians have left the final status of these populations unresolved.

What does annexation mean?

Annexation is when a state unilaterally proclaims its sovereignty over another territory – meaning it is officially and permanently considered part of that state.

It is forbidden under international law and a violation of Article 2 of the UN’s charter.

However, the Israeli leadership does not recognise this, as it believes territories like the West Bank are “disputed” not occupied, meaning applying Israeli sovereignty over these lands is not annexation per se.

In practice, according to rights groups, the most significant consequences of annexing the West Bank would probably be an explosion of settlement construction as the permit process would be made a lot easier, decreased freedom of movement for Palestinians, greater exploitation of natural resources and possibly forced displacement.

Israel has already unilaterally annexed the Golan Heights from Syria and East Jerusalem.

(Reuters (Reuters)

What does Mr Netanyahu want to annex?

Mr Netanyahu originally focused on imminently declaring Israeli sovereignty over the strategic and fertile 2,400 sq km area of the Jordan Valley and northern Dead Sea area along the border with Jordan.

He later expanded that to include all of Israel’s settlements in the West Bank, following the publication of Mr Trump’s peace plan in January.

Mr Trump’s plan envisages a future where 30 per cent of the West Bank and most of Jerusalem will be handed to Israel. The remaining land in the West Bank, Gaza, parts of East Jerusalem, and a few other envelopes would make up a Palestinian “statelet”.

The plan insists “no Palestinians or Israelis would be uprooted from their homes” but Peace Now and other rights groups have disputed this saying according to Mr Trump’s roughly drawn map, over 327,000 Palestinians will be brought under Israeli control.

The deal – which was roundly rejected by the Palestinians – was supposed to require both sides to sign. But US ambassador to Israel, David Friedman, said Israel “does not have to wait”.

An Israeli-American committee was set up to try to hammer out more precise borders. A detailed map has yet to be published. And so, it is not clear what Mr Netanyahu immediately plans to do.

According to multiple reports, amid international pushback, Mr Netanyahu has been mulling a less extreme version of annexation.

On Friday, Israel’s Channel 12 reported that Israeli officials told the Palestinian leadership that annexation would be limited to only two or three of the older settlements blocs.

A few days later, the Kan public broadcaster reported that Mr Netanayhu told his members of his party he will likely not meet the 1 July target date, citing “diplomatic and security considerations”.

What have the Palestinians said?

The Palestinians have vehemently denounced Mr Trump’s peace plan and any form of annexation, saying it would kill any chance of a future sovereign state.

A view of the Israeli settlement of Givat Zeev, near the Palestinian city of Ramallah in the occupied West Bank (AFP) (AFP via Getty)

After Mr Netanyahu’s latest annexation threats, last month Palestinian president Mahmoud Abbas renounced the Palestinians’s commitments to the Oslo peace accords of the 1990s, including security cooperation with Israel.

Mr Abbas is also reportedly mulling dissolving the Palestinian Authority based in the West Bank, cutting salaries to its police officers and withholding vital funding to Gaza as part of desperate measures to force Israel to shoulder responsibility for millions of Palestinians in the West Bank and elsewhere.

Hamas, the Palestinian militant group which runs Gaza, has warned that annexation is “a declaration of war against our Palestinian people”. It has called for armed resistance to the move. On Friday, Israel said Palestinian militants in Gaza fired two rockets into southern Israel, breaking months of calm.

What about global opinion?

Much of the international community, both allies and enemies of Israel, have expressed deep concern about Mr Netanyahu’s annexation plans. Most recently on Monday, the UN’s human rights chief Michelle Bachelet warned it would result in the “loss of life” and have “disastrous” decades-long consequences for the region.

Her comments join a chorus of condemnation from different bodies and states including the European Union – Israel’s biggest trading partner (in 2017 it totalled €36.2bn or £30bn) – the UK, Russia, Israel’s Arab neighbours and the Gulf, which until recently had been steadily building unofficial relations with Israel.

Jordan, which alongside Egypt has peace treaties with Israel, has said annexation may jeopardise those key regional agreements. King Abdullah, who rarely speaks out on such matters, warned last month of “massive conflict” between Israel and his own country if Mr Netanyahu went ahead with annexation.

Some figures within Europe, including the Belgium parliament and the UK’s shadow foreign secretary Lisa Nandy, have even called for sanctions against Israel like a ban on import of goods from Israeli settlements if annexation goes ahead.

Last week more than 1,000 parliamentarians from across Europe, including 240 legislators from Britain, signed a letter strongly opposing Israel’s plans.

But what about the US?

The US had been accused of greenlighting the annexation plan. That said, there have been mixed signals from within Mr Trump’s administration, with the president’s top adviser and son-in-law Jared Kushner at points urging caution about the speedy timeline.

Mr Netanyahu is keen to push forward with annexation ahead of the US’s elections in November, should Mr Trump, arguably the most pro-Israel president yet, not be re-elected.

Last week senior officials including Jared Kushner and Mike Pompeo held three days of meetings in the White House to discuss the issue. They ended without any final decision and further talks are expected.

The main options under US consideration are a gradual process in which Israel initially declares sovereignty over several settlements close to Jerusalem.

There is also a partisan divide. On Thursday, a letter was sent to the Israeli government signed by 189 House Democrats expressing concern about the annexation plan. They said they feared unilateral actions taken by either side would jeopardise the “possibility of a final, negotiated agreement”.

During a virtual fundraiser last month, Joe Biden, the presumptive Democratic nominee, said that he did not support annexation as it would “choke off any hope of peace”.

What is the mood in Israel?

According to an April poll by the Israel Democracy Institute, 52 per cent of Jewish Israelis support the plan to annex part of the West Bank, with most of that percentage coming from Israel’s right-wing voters.

That said there are those, including leading figures from within Israel’s defence establishment, who are concerned that it may pose a grave security threat to the country.

Commanders for Israel’s Security, a bipartisan group of retired generals from Israel’s army, intelligence wings, and police departments, released a report saying that unilateral annexation could cost the state 52 billion shekels (£10bn) a year.

In May, Israeli media reported that the country’s military liaison to the Palestinians told the head of Israel’s army and Mr Gantz, the defence minister, annexation would lead to a “wave of terror attacks”.

Even Israel’s top military officer, chief of staff lieutenant general Aviv Kochavi, has apparently issued an alert to his forces to prepare for violence.

Closer to home, Mr Netanyahu is facing a muted response from his coalition partner Mr Gantz.

Sources within Mr Gantz’s centrist Blue and White party have said he told US ambassador David Friedman and White House adviser Avi Berkowitz this week that the 1 July target date for discussing annexation was “not sacred”.

While Mr Gantz cannot stop Mr Netanyahu from putting annexation legislation to parliament, Washington wants Mr Gantz on board.

The former army chief apparently made it clear in the same meeting that while he supports the notion of annexation it should only be advanced “with strategic partners in the region and with the Palestinians, and to reach an arrangement that benefits all sides”.