Demonstrators take part in a rally to protest against Israel's plan to annex parts of the West Bank, Jericho, June 22, 2020
Despite widespread condemnation from Palestinians, US-Arab allies and numerous foreign governments. Israel is expected on July 1 to annex huge swathes of Palestinian land in the occupied West Bank under a plan agreed by Netanyahu and his rival turned ally Benny Gantz, the head of the Blue and White party.
The plan comes as part of US President Donald Trump’s so-called “Deal of the Century” which was announced on Jan. 28. It refers to Jerusalem as “Israel’s undivided capital” and recognizes Israeli sovereignty over large parts of the West Bank, and calls for the establishment of a Palestinian state in the form of an archipelago connected by bridges and tunnels. Palestinian officials say that under the US plan, Israel will annex 30%-40% of the West Bank, including all of East Jerusalem.occupied territory.
These dangerous proposals, represent a serious attack on decades of international law and successive United Nations resolutions, and further undermine the rights of the Palestinian people and the prospects of peace in the Middle East.The plan will force Palestinians to live in isolated enclaves surrounded by Israeli military checkpoints, walls and segregated Jewish settlements built on Palestinian land, and will have a devastating impact on the lives of hundreds of thousands of Palestinian children, women and men, whose voices were not even consulted. The Israeli government has already made it clear that Palestinians in the West Bank who will be annexed to Israel will not receive citizenship nor residence rights, and the most likely outcomes will see further unequal distribution of land and water resources on behalf of illegal Israeli settlements, more state violence, and fragmented Palestinian enclaves under complete Israeli control
As the world is focused on the response to the Covid-19 pandemic, the Israeli government is rushing to implement these plans ahead of the US presidential elections in November.
Even a smaller scale annexation would mark an immense blow against the democratic and national ambitions of millions of Palestinians, and particularly against the idea of a Palestinian state existing alongside Israel, and thus would mark a significant turning point in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. This threat has already drawn protests and sharp opposition on both sides of the national divide and internationally. This includes thousands of Palestinians in the West Bank and thousands of Jews and Palestinians in Israel who have protested against the plan.
The demands of the Palestinian people for an end to occupation and the system of segregation, an end to discrimination and the right to full equality, and the exercising of self-determination through the establishment of a Palestinian state on the 1967 borders remain unchanged. These legitimate demands will not be diminished by unilateral moves taken by Israel in violation of international law, and we must reiterates our solidarity with the Palestinian non-violent opposition whose freedom, dignity and human rights are threatened by this current proposal and Israel's previous actions. Since 1967, tens of thousands of Palestinian properties have been demolished and whole communities forcibly displaced to make way for illegal settlements. Natural resources have been diverted and appropriated to settlements which flourish while Palestinians communities face systematic and institutionalised human rights violations, and lets not forget that under every shade of Israeli rule, Palestinians have only ever been exiled refugees, occupied subjects, or second-class citizens. There is nothing that another bill can tell us that decades of laws and policies haven’t already. And there is no need to wait for Israelis to admit their regime is apartheid to prove that Palestinians were right all along.
Israel's plan to annex any area of the West Bank including the Jordan Valley must be condemned.We must recognise East Jerusalem and the Syrian Golan Heights as illegally annexed under international law and continue to condemn Israel's 53-year occupation of the West Bank and its 13-year blockade of Gaza. Adding our voice to the growing denunciation of Israel's flagrant disregard of international law, the Geneva Convention and resolutions agreed upon by the United Nations General Assembly and Security Council. Standing with those countries, civil society and human rights organizations, and people of conscience who call for Israel to immediately end their plans for annexation.
Annexation, will formalise Israel's strategic and persistent efforts to create "facts on the ground" and will be the death knell for a viable Palestinian state. For decades, a two-state solution which acknowledges the rights and security of both Palestinians and Israelis as equal neighbours has been upheld by the United Nations and the international community. If Israel continues with its plans, as articulated, realisation of a two-state solution will be rendered impossible. This will cause irreversible damage to the fulfillment of the inalienable right of Palestinians to self-determination, as guaranteed in Article 1 of the Charter of the United Nations, and will hinder efforts for them to create a flourishing Palestinian state.
Disturbing historical parallels have also been drawn between Palestinians and the Bantu people of South Africa. Ten territories were designated as quasi-autonomous states for the black African population during the mid to late 20th century and kept under control of the white supremacist state. The “Steal of the Century” is intended to bring about a similar fate for Palestinians.
With the looming threat of annexation, there’s been a general escalation in attacks by Israeli state forces and by colonial settlers on Palestinians in the West Bank and East Jerusalem.
The killing of Eyad al-Hallaq, a 32-year-old Palestinian with autism, on May 30 in occupied East Jerusalem by Israeli “Border Police” soldiers was a graphic example of the brutality of the Israeli occupation in a territory which was already officially annexed to Israel immediately after the 1967 war of occupation.
The small but important protests following that killing involved Palestinians and Israelis and drew inspiration from the BLM rebellion in the US, with some using the slogan “Palestinian Lives Matter”. Israeli Jewish activists of Ethiopian origin drew a comparison between the case and the racist police brutality endured by Israeli Ethiopians, which sparked a series of stormy protests, most recently in July 2019. In response to the killing of al-Hallaq, the Israeli establishment, including Netanyahu, shed some crocodile tears, realizing the potential for a stronger backlash.
Yet, despite Netanyahu’s concern with a potential investigation in The Hague, it is clear that any annexation move will trigger a sharp backlash against the Israeli occupation and the Israeli regime in general over the next period. The plan is quite simply a further attempt to legitimize the illegitimate: Israel’s existing policies of forcible expulsion of the indigenous Palestinian population, home demolitions and evictions, and already unprecedented levels of state-sanctioned settler violence against Palestinians. Annexation means Israel’s illegal, immoral, and racist 19th Century campaign of colonization, genocide, ethnic cleansing, and apartheid become officially formalized – in violation of all international law.
Virtually everyone opposes this, but the question is whether anyone will do anything about it. Europe and others have the power to make Israel think twice, but they need to hear a massive demand for action from citizens first. Let's give it to them! .
Demand action for Palestine now, plase sign the following petitions:-
,
https://secure.avaaz.org/campaign/en/no_more_palestine_61/
https://www.change.org/p/israeli-ambassador-to-oslo-stop-israeli-west-bank-annexation-sign-the-petition?source_location=topic_page
Quick Facts : Israel Annexation of Occupied Land & International Law
https://imeu.org/article/quick-facts-israeli-annexation-of-occupied-land-international-law
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