Palestinian Foreign Minister Riyad al-Maliki welcomed the statement of the Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in Palestine, Michael Link, who criticized Israel's plan to annex occupied land.

In a statement issued on Friday, Al-Maliki considered the Link report as the voice of conscience and international law, through which he affirmed that the annexation of Israel to the Palestinian territories was a severe blow to the international system.

He added that the Special Rapporteur diagnosed the Israeli occupation in a scientific and legal manner, and that the annexation plans would crystallize an apartheid regime that would undermine the right of the Palestinian people to self-determination.

Al-Maliki called on the United Nations and member states to implement the recommendations of the Special Rapporteur for Human Rights in the Occupied Palestinian Territories, by converting their criticisms and speeches into steps and procedures.

Possibilities and consequences
 Earlier yesterday, Link said that Israel's implementation of a plan to annex parts of the Palestinian territories to its sovereignty would eliminate any remaining possibility of a just settlement with the Palestinians.

Link added that the plans of the new Israeli government to annex important parts of the occupied West Bank - including the Jordan Valley - would create a series of dire consequences for human rights, and undermine any remaining prospect for a just and negotiated settlement.

And he considered that if the Israeli annexation plans were to move forward, what would remain of the West Bank would be a Palestinian "Bentoan" (an archipelago of separate islands divided, completely surrounded by Israel, and not connected with the outside world.

It is noteworthy that on April 20 last, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and leader of the "Blue and White" party Benny Gantz signed an agreement to form an emergency unity government, each of which will rotate its presidency, with Netanyahu starting first for 18 months.

Netanyahu plans to put forward a bill to annex the Jordan Valley and settlements in the occupied West Bank in early July, and Palestinian estimates indicate that the annexation will reach more than 30% of the area of ​​the West Bank.

The Palestinians have repeatedly warned that the annexation would undermine the idea of ​​a two-state solution.