Israel's Netanyahu says he plans to annex settlements in West Bank
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on Saturday
he would annex settlements in the occupied West Bank if he wins another term in
office in a vote on Tuesday, a late pre-election promise that would enrage
Palestinians and the Arab world, Reuters reported.
In an interview to Israeli Channel 12 News, Netanyahu was
asked why he hadn’t extended Israeli sovereignty to large West Bank
settlements, as it has done in East Jerusalem and the Golan Heights, other
territory seized in the 1967 Middle East war.
“Who says that we won’t do it? We are on the way and we are
discussing it,” Netanyahu said. “You are asking whether we are moving on to the
next stage - the answer is yes, we will move to the next stage. I am going to
extend (Israeli) sovereignty and I don’t distinguish between settlement blocs
and the isolated settlements.”
Palestinian officials could not immediately be reached for
comment.
The Palestinians want to establish a state in the occupied
West Bank, east Jerusalem and the Gaza Strip. Some 500,000 Israelis live in the
West Bank and East Jerusalem, areas that are also home to more than 2.6 million
Palestinians. Israel pulled out of Gaza in 2005.
Some of the parties Netanyahu said he would seek to include
in a coalition government if he wins the election advocate annexing parts of
the West Bank. Netanyahu is competing with those parties for pro-settler voters
in the April 9 election. His comments are likely to appeal to such voters, who
object to ceding lands to the Palestinians.
Settlements are one of the most heated issues in efforts to
restart Israeli-Palestinian peace talks, frozen since 2014.
Most countries consider settlements that Israel has built in
territory captured in the 1967 war to be illegal. Israel disputes this citing
historical ties, and says the future of the land should be determined in peace
talks with the Palestinians.
The United States broke with decades of international
consensus last month by recognizing Israeli sovereignty over the Golan Heights,
territory Israel captured from Syria.