Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on Tuesday that a US peace plan envisages the proposed Palestinian capital be located in Abu Dis, a neighborhood on the outskirts of Jerusalem.
After US President Donald Trump presented his peace plan, Netanyahu told reporters the United States recognizes Jerusalem as Israel’s undivided capital, “by which I mean, within its fences," an apparent reference to municipal boundaries.
The right-wing leader, who faces a new election in March, said he would bring a proposal for applying Israeli jurisdiction to the Jordan Valley, the northern Dead Sea and West Bank settlements for cabinet approval at its next session, probably on Sunday.
“Israel is offering the Palestinians, at the end of the process, conditional, limited sovereignty," Netanyahu said.
Palestinians were absent from Trump's announcement and Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas called the plan the "slap of the century."
Netanyahu’s hardline nationalist allies called for the immediate annexation of Jewish settlements in the West Bank in reaction to Trump’s peace plan.
Defense Minister Naftali Bennett said the proposal offers Israel “an opportunity to determine the territory of our country” and “include all the Israeli settlements in the land of Israel within the sovereign state of Israel.”
Bennett, a hawkish member of the religious nationalist Yemina party, said that Israel “cannot wait until after the elections, and won’t be satisfied with partial sovereignty — take it all now.”
Ayelet Shaked, former justice minister and Bennett’s running mate, said Israel is at “a historic moment” and also called for unilateral annexation of West Bank land.
