Likud party calls for de facto annexation of Israeli settlements

The Likud Central Committee voted on Sunday to unanimously accept a resolution that calls on the party's leaders to move to formally annex the West Bank.

Sara Netanyahu, (L), wife of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, arrive for the Likud party primary elections in Jerusalem. December 31, 2014 file photo,
AP Archive

Sara Netanyahu, (L), wife of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, arrive for the Likud party primary elections in Jerusalem. December 31, 2014 file photo,

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 could streamline procedures for their construction and expansion. That land is currently under military jurisdiction and Israel's defence minister has a final say on building there.

The settlers are subject to Israeli civilian law.

"We will now promote the recognition of our sovereignty of the Jewish settlements in Judea and Samaria (the West Bank). ... We must begin to enact this sovereignty, we have the moral right and obligation towards our settler brothers," Public Security Minister Gilad Erdan told a meeting of Likud's Central Committee.

Netanyahu is not bound to follow the resolution. He did not attend the meeting, which attracted several hundred delegates, including ministers, legislators and party officials. The Likud Central Committee is the party's governing body.

Abbas condemns vote for West Bank annexation

Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas on Monday harshly condemned the vote by Israel's ruling party in support of annexing large parts of the West Bank and criticised the United States for its silence.

Abbas said the non-binding vote by the central committee of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's Likud party on Sunday "could not be taken without the full support of the US administration".

He said in a statement that the White House "has refused to condemn Israeli colonial settlements as well as the systematic attacks and crimes of the Israeli occupation against the people of Palestine".

"We hope that this vote serves as a reminder for the international community that the Israeli government, with the full support of the US administration, is not interested in a just and lasting peace," Abbas said.

"Rather its main goal is the consolidation of an apartheid regime in all of historic Palestine."

At least two previous Likud Central Committee decisions have been ignored by party leaders.

In 2002, it voted against the creation of a Palestinian state, but then-Prime Minister Ariel Sharon said he would act as he saw fit and Netanyahu in 2009 voiced conditional support for the establishment of a Palestinian state in a landmark speech.

Political commentators said the decision might bolster right-wing support for Netanyahu, who could seek a public mandate in an early election as he awaits possible criminal indictments against him on corruption suspicions. He denies wrongdoing.

Although parliamentary elections are not due until November 2019, the police investigations in two cases of alleged corruption against Netanyahu and tensions among partners in his governing coalition could hasten a poll.

Most countries view settlements that Israel has built on land captured in the 1967 Middle East war as illegal. Israel disputes that and cites biblical, historical and political links to the West Bank, as well as security interests.

About 400,000 settlers and 2.8 million Palestinians live in the West Bank. The Palestinians want to establish a state in the West Bank and Gaza Strip with East Jerusalem as its capital.

In 1981, Israel enacted civilian law on the Golan Heights, territory captured from Syria in 1967, a de facto annexation of the strategic plateau. The move has not won international recognition.

Israeli settlements have been one of the main stumbling blocks in Israeli-Palestinian peace talks that have been frozen since 2014. 

Efforts by US President Donald Trump's envoys to restart them have not yet shown any progress. Trump this month recognised Jerusalem as Israel's capital, reversing decades of US policy. 

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