From Haaretz
Netanyahu and Gantz have agreed on a plan to annex the West Bank. All that’s left is to negotiate the details and pass the plan in the Knesset.
“Once approved by the cabinet, a proposal to apply Israeli sovereignty over parts of the West Bank would also require approval by the Knesset’s Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee, and then the full Knesset.”
Right-wing settler parties have expressed concern that language in the proposal requires American approval first:
“Gantz and Netanyahu, until recently political rivals who faced off in Israel’s March 2 election, agreed that Netanyahu would be able to bring a proposal for annexing parts of the West Bank to a cabinet vote this summer, but only if the United States backs the move and if it is done in coordination with other international players.”
“Yamina also alleged that the wording in the proposed coalition agreement on applying sovereignty to parts of the West Bank is “vague” and “doesn’t say anything, and even worse, it postpones sovereignty until too close to the U.S. elections, which casts a heavy shadow over the possibility of getting American consent for the move.”
I doubt Netanyahu is too concerned about the Trump administration. Trump needs his base of Evangelical Christians and the AIPAC crowd to turn out in big numbers for the election; he is not going to stand in the way of this. Israel will annex the West Bank and the Palestinians living in the west Bank will not be given Israeli citizenship. They will be treated as a conquered people – subjugated to the nation of Israel with no voice.
As Professor Yuval Shaney at Lawfare blog writes:
“the annexation plans will perpetuate Israel’s control over large parts of the West Bank, effectively subjecting the Palestinian residents living next to the annexed areas to its authority on a day-to-day and permanent basis. These residents will be dependent on Israel regarding their movement and in connection to their basic rights to health, work, family life and more. Involuntarily subjecting a large local population to the power and authority of a foreign state—without providing that population with the right to naturalize and to partake in the design of government policies that affect daily life—raises significant questions of democratic legitimacy.”
