Part of the occupied West Bank could be annexed by Israel if Benjamin Netanyahu won the parliamentary elections on 17 September. This was promised on Tuesday, September 10, the Prime Minister of the Jewish State at a press conference in Ramat Gan, near Tel Aviv.

"Today, I announce my intention to apply, with a future government, the sovereignty of Israel over the Jordan Valley and the northern part of the Dead Sea," he said. The Jordan Valley accounts for about 30% of the West Bank, a Palestinian territory occupied by Israel since 1967. Benjamin Netanyahu's announcement comes one week to the day of Israel's bitterly contested parliamentary elections.

Benjamin Netanyahu, who is campaigning on the right and courting the Jewish settler electorate for the annexation of the West Bank, is currently neck-and-neck with his closest rival, former army chief Benny Gantz, at the head of the centrist party "Bleu-blanc".

A peace plan after the legislative

A peace plan for the Middle East must be presented by the United States after the Israeli elections. This plan will be "a historic and unique opportunity to apply our sovereignty over our settlements in Judea and Samaria and other places key to our security, our heritage and our future," the prime minister added in front of Israeli flags.

The annexation of part of the occupied West Bank would ruin "any chance of peace", reacted for its part a senior Palestinian official. "It's a flagrant violation of international law, it's flagrant theft of land, it's ethnic cleansing, it's not only destroying the two-state solution, but any chance of peace is a game changer," he said. told AFP Hanane Achraoui, a cadre of the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO).

An announcement already made

A few days before the April legislative elections, Benjamin Netanyahu had already promised to annex Jewish settlements in "Judea and Samaria", the biblical name of the occupied West Bank.

While Israel's colonization of the West Bank and East Jerusalem has continued under all Israeli governments since 1967, it has accelerated in recent years under the leadership of Benjamin Netanyahu and his ally in Washington, Donald Trump. To date, more than 600,000 Israelis face conflictual coexistence with three million Palestinians in the West Bank and East Jerusalem.

With AFP