West Bank Annexation: Palestinians Demonstrate Against US Plan

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It was from this Wednesday that Benjamin Netanyahu could announce whether or not Israel was applying the American plan for the Middle East. Its implementation plans to annex at least 30% of the occupied West Bank and the creation of a future Palestinian state, but demilitarized, on a fragmented territory and without East Jerusalem as its capital. 

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With our correspondent in Ramallah, Alice Froussard

There was finally no announcement on Wednesday, July 1, but in the Palestinian Territories, residents wanted to voice their anger. In Ramallah, seat of the Palestinian Authority, the demonstrators were few, barely a hundred, but united against the implementation of the American plan. You could see flags, signs against annexation, but also against the occupation, or for the release of Palestinian prisoners.

"  How are we going to live when Israel already controls everything, and the Palestinian Authority no longer has authority?  Wonder the locals. "  We are demonstrating because it is our identity that will disappear,  " they deplore, before adding that the annexation already exists, de facto , on the ground.

2,000 protesters in Gaza

In the Gaza Strip, on the other hand, the rallies were larger
with nearly 2,000 Gazans, including one of Hamas officials. According to local residents, the tension is more palpable in the coastal enclave. Poverty, movement restrictions, the end of the payment of wages by the Palestinian Authority for more than a month contributes to heighten the anxiety. All this is now mixed with a mixture of worry and fear since the Islamist movement in power clarified that a declaration of annexation meant declaration of war.

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• Israel
• Palestinian territories
• United States