The UN to Israel: "No to annexation of parts of the West Bank". The US gives its go-ahead

• Israel, supreme court rules "unconstitutional" law authorizing settlements in the West Bank

Share

UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres called on the "Israeli government to abandon its annexation plans" for parts of the West Bank, urging "Israeli and Palestinian leaders to engage in dialogue with support from the international community".

"The annexation of parts of the occupied West Bank - said Guterres on Twitter - would constitute a serious violation of international law, would seriously damage the prospect of a two-state solution and would undermine the possibility of resuming negotiations".

Obviously the US Secretary of State, Mike Pompeo, is not of the same opinion. Israel has the US go-ahead to annex Palestinian territories, he said. "Decisions on extending Israel's sovereignty to those areas are decisions that Israelis must make," Pompeo told reporters. The Secretary of State spoke a few moments after the UN and the Arab League joined the appeal to Israel to abandon its plans to annex parts of the occupied West Bank.

Salman's appeal (Palestinian community): Saturday is peace with Italy
"Most Italian and European politicians say they support the two-state solution to resolve the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, which is why we are now asking for a gesture of consistency: the state of Palestine must be recognized immediately, by stopping Israel's plan to annex Palestinian territories and defending once and for all the rights of the Palestinian population ". The appeal comes from Yousef Salman, president of the Palestinian community of Rome and Lazio. Pediatrician, who arrived in Italy in 1972 at the age of 18, is one of the organizers of a series of marches and sit-ins that will take place in Italy from north to south on Saturday 27 June to say "no" to the Prime Minister's plan. Benjamin Netanyahu who could bring up to 30 percent of the West Bank territories under Tel Aviv's control. The head of government denied it was "an annexation". According to a study by the Washington Institute for Near East Policy, on the other hand, 78 Palestinian communities could be found in Israeli territory, for over 109,000 people, roughly 4.5 percent of the total population of the West Bank. Netanyahu, re-elected this year, enjoys US support for his plan. Initiatives in Italy "have already joined 15 cities and the list continues to grow". Appointments also in Rome, Milan, Venice, Florence, Bologna, Naples, Bari and Palermo. From the squares, underlines the president of the community, the warning to Israel will be "to renounce its plan, because it violates United Nations resolutions and international law".

According to Salman, the West Bank and Gaza "are already occupied by the army, which is everywhere, and allows Israeli settlers to take over the land of Palestinians, committing violations in full impunity". In defense of the settlements, already condemned by the UN and the European Union, Salman reports, "settlers can use weapons and threaten the lives of Palestinians, stealing their land and possessions".

In recent days appeals and warnings have come from Italian institutions and political parties regarding Israel's plan, but for the President of the Palestinian Community of Rome and Lazio it is not enough: "It is no longer time for words, facts are needed". Salman uses the term "apartheid" for "crimes suffered by the Palestinians" and recalls the words of Desmond Tutu, South African archbishop allied to Nelson Mandela and Nobel Peace Prize, who called the condition of the Palestinians "worse" than that of the blacks in segregationist South Africa.

In addition to street demonstrations, Salman proposes "a large international conference with all interested parties to resolve the conflict, to be held in Rome, by virtue of its historical, religious and cultural link with Jerusalem". Not surprisingly, Saturday's sit-in "will be held in the Capitol, just to relaunch a peace signal".

On June 10, the Israeli Supreme Court quashed the 2017 law that would legalize Jewish settlements in the West Bank built on Palestinian private land as "unconstitutional." The decision is based on the fact, writes the Court, that the law "violates the Palestinian property and equality rights while privileging the interests of Israeli settlers over Palestinian residents." It concerns about 4,000 houses built by settlers.

The West Bank is part, together with the Gaza Strip, of the "Palestinian territories" and of the historical-geographical region of Palestine. With the Oslo agreements (1993) most of the West Bank was placed under the administration of the Palestinian National Authority, although Israel maintains settlements and build new ones, and despite the construction of a defensive barrier along the temporary border between the two states. In 2005, Israel implemented the unilateral withdrawal from Gaza alone, without removing the embargo on the entry of goods and people.