Israeli bills for West Bank annexation undermines 2-state solution: Jordan

By Anadolu staff

ISTANBUL (AA) – Jordan decried the Israeli Knesset’s preliminary passage of two bills on Wednesday to annex the occupied West Bank and the Ma’ale Adumim settlement bloc in East Jerusalem as “a flagrant breach of international law” and a dangerous escalation undermining the two-state solution.

The Knesset approved the two bills in a preliminary reading on Wednesday. Both drafts still must pass three additional readings to become law.

In a statement, Jordanian Foreign Ministry spokesman Fouad al-Majali called the move “a flagrant violation of international law and a blow to the two-state solution, as well as to the Palestinian people’s inalienable right to self-determination and to establish their independent, sovereign state on the June 4, 1967 lines, with occupied Jerusalem as its capital.”

The Palestinian group Hamas also rejected the Israeli bills, calling Israel’s efforts to annex the occupied West Bank “null and void.”

“The occupation’s frantic attempts to annex the West Bank are illegal and invalid. They do not change the fact that the West Bank is Palestinian land under history, international law, and the 2024 advisory opinion of the International Court of Justice,” it said in a statement.

The Knesset vote came despite opposition from US President Donald Trump, who said last month that he would not allow Israel to annex the West Bank. It also came as US Vice President JD Vance is currently visiting Israel.

Annexing the West Bank would effectively end the possibility of implementing a two-state solution to the Palestinian-Israeli conflict as outlined in UN resolutions.

Israeli attacks have escalated across the West Bank since October 2023, killing more than 1,056 Palestinians, injuring 10,300, and detaining over 20,000 others, according to Palestinian figures.

In a landmark opinion last July, the International Court of Justice declared Israel’s occupation of Palestinian territory illegal and called for the evacuation of all settlements in the West Bank and East Jerusalem.