Israeli government figures have called for a takeover of the West Bank after several countries, including the UK, Canada, Malta, and Australia, formally recognised the state of Palestine.
On Sunday, Sir Keir Starmer joined a growing number of Western leaders in announcing recognition, prompted by intensifying humanitarian crises in Gaza.
It is expected to be top of the agenda at the UN General Assembly summit this week, with the UN voting to allow Palestinian president Mahmoud Abbas to address the gathering.
However, Israel’s hard-right national security minister, Itamar Ben Gvir, said he would call for the “immediate” annexation of the West Bank in response to the move.
“The recognition by Britain, Canada, and Australia of a ‘Palestinian’ state, as a reward for the Nukhba murderers, demands immediate countermeasures,” he wrote in a statement on X/Twitter.
The countermeasures should include, he said: “The immediate application of sovereignty in Judea and Samaria [the biblical terms for the West Bank region] and the complete crushing of the ‘Palestinian’ terror authority.
“It is my intention to submit a proposal for the application of sovereignty to the upcoming government meeting.”
The move would represent the de facto annexation of land seized in the 1967 six-day war.
Israel’s hard-right finance minister Bezalel Smotrich backed the proposal, saying it was the “only answer” to the escalating tensions, which have spilt over into surrounding regions.
“The days when Britain and other countries determined our future are over,” he wrote on X/Twitter.
“The mandate has ended, and the only response to the anti-Israeli move is sovereignty over the homeland of the Jewish people in Judea and Samaria, and the removal of the foolish idea of a Palestinian state from the agenda forever.”
Addressing Benjamin Netanyahu, he said: “Mr prime minister, this is the time and it is in your hands.”
Foreign secretary Yvette Cooper has warned Israel not to retaliate, saying that the symbolic recognition of a Palestinian state is about “protecting peace and justice and crucially, security for the Middle East”.
“The easy thing to do would be to just walk away and to say well it is all just too hard,” she told the BBC.
“We just think that is wrong when we’ve seen such devastation, such suffering. Just as we recognise Israel, the state of Israel ... so we must also recognise the rights for the Palestinians to a state of their own as well.”
The United Arab Emirates, which normalised ties with Israel under the Abraham Accords in 2020, said the move would undermine the agreement.
“That is why we came on record saying that annexation is a red line for my government because it strikes at the very heart of what the Abraham Accords were meant to achieve,” Lana Nusseibeh, minister of state at the UAE foreign affairs ministry, said on Monday (22 September).
Mayor of Jenin, Mohammed Jarrar, told the BBC: “This Israeli government wants to annex the West Bank and in preparation for that, it wants to prevent any [armed] opposition to its plan.” Over 40 per cent of the city is currently under Israeli military control.
Netanyahu has called the move to recognise a Palestinian state “a huge reward to terrorism” and promised to continue with Israel’s plan to expand Jewish settlements in the region.
Malta was the latest to announce it would recognise a Palestinian state at the UN General Assembly summit, the Prime Minister’s Office said in a statement on Monday (22 September).
At the weekend, Sir Keir said: “In the face of the growing horror in the Middle East we are acting to keep alive the possibility of peace and a two-state solution.
“That means a safe and secure Israel alongside a viable Palestinian state – at the moment, we have neither. Ordinary people, Israeli and Palestinian, deserve to live in peace, to try to rebuild their lives free from violence and suffering. That’s what the British people desperately want to see.”
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