Likud Party approves annexation of W. Bank settlements

By Turgut Alp Boyraz

JERUSALEM (AA) - Ruling Israeli Likud party's central committee, has approved a proposal for the annexation of Jewish settlements in occupied West Bank Palestinian territories.

The central committee is the highest decision making mechanism of the Likud party.

The proposal, which was voted for in the central committee's conference in Jerusalem, called for making Israeli sovereignty and laws dominant in the occupied West Bank Palestinian territories and gives permission to build more Jewish settlements.

Ministers and lawmakers from the party supported the proposal, however, Prime Minister Benjamin Netahyahu, who is also from the Likud party, did not make a statement on the issue.

If the proposal is presented to the Israeli parliament Knesset, it needs to be discussed in three different sessions before being approved.

It is said that Israel wants to bring the number of settlers in the West Bank to a million in a short period of time, while half a million residents are currently living in Jewish settlements in Palestinian soil and 220,000 in the settlements in East Jerusalem.

According to international law, all Jewish settlements in these regions are "illegal".