Netanyahu vows to annex settlements
Palestinians condemn move, most countries deem West Bank settlements as illegal
JERUSALEM: Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on Saturday that he would annex Israeli settlements in the occupied West Bank if he wins another term in office, a lastminute pre-election promise likely to enrage Palestinians and the Arab world.
In an interview with Israeli Channel 12 News three days ahead of the April 9 poll, Netanyahu was asked why he had not extended sovereignty to large West Bank settlements, as Israel did without international recognition in east Jerusalem and the Golan Heights, both captured in the 1967 Middle East war.
“Who says that we won’t do it? We are on the way and we are discussing it,” Netanyahu said.
“You are asking whether we are moving on to the next stage - the answer is yes, we will move to the next stage. I am going to extend (Israeli) sovereignty and I don’t distinguish between settlement blocs and the isolated settlements.”
You are asking whether we are moving on to the next stage - the answer is yes, we will move to the next stage. I am going to extend (Israeli) sovereignty and I don’t distinguish between settlement blocs and the isolated settlements. Benjamin Netanyahu, Israeli Prime Minister
Palestinian leaders immediately reacted with anger.
Saeb Erekat, the chief Palestinian negotiator and a close aide to Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, said: “Israel will continue to brazenly violate international law for as long as the international community will continue to reward Israel with impunity, particularly with the Trump Administration’s support and endorsement of Israel’s violation of the national and human rights of the people of Palestine.”
In Gaza, Hamas official Sami Abu Zuhri urged Abbas’s westernbacked Palestinian Authority to halt its security cooperation with Israel in the occupied West Bank.
“Netanyahu’s dreams of annexing the West Bank will never be achieved and we will not allow that to happen,” he said.
“It is time for (the PA) to stop security coordination with the occupation, and to get united in the face of the challenges.”
Settlements are one of the most heated issues in efforts to restart Israeli-Palestinian peace talks, frozen since 2014.
After decades of settlementbuilding, more than 400,000 Israelis now live in the West Bank, according to Israeli figures, among about 2.9 million Palestinians according to the Palestinian Statistics Bureau.
A further 212,000 Israeli settlers live in East Jerusalem, according to the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs.
The Palestinians and many countries consider settlements to be illegal under the Geneva conventions that bar settling on land captured in war. Israel disputes this, citing security needs and biblical, historical and political connections to the land.
The Palestinians want to establish a state in the West Bank, east Jerusalem and the Gaza Strip, all territory Israel captured in 1967. Israel has annexed east Jerusalem and withdrawn from Gaza. The West Bank remains under Israeli military occupation with limited Palestinian self rule.
Netanyahu’s remarks follow a series of announcements and policy changes by US President Donald Trump that were seen to favour Israel.
In March, Trump broke with decades of international consensus by recognising Israeli sovereignty over the Golan Heights, territory Israel captured from Syria. That followed his December 2017 decision to recognise Jerusalem as the capital of Israel, and to move the US embassy there.
Both moves delighted Israel, infuriated Palestinian and Arab leaders, and were opposed by most US allies.
With Trump’s moves on Jerusalem and The Golan, the Israeli leader may feel emboldened to advocate for annexation.
US officials have said they would unveil a long-awaited Trump administration Middle East peace plan after the Israeli election, but prospects to restart negotiations appear dim.
The Palestinians have been boycotting the Trump administration over its Jerusalem moves and other recent decisions they view as pro-Israel bias.
The US State Department declined to comment about Netanyahu’s remarks, which were viewed in the Israeli media as an attempt to draw right-wing votes rather than an immediate change of policy.
A few days before the previous Israeli election in 2015, Netanyahu vowed there would never be a Palestinian state under his watch but then backtracked on that statement after a rebuke from Trump’s predecessor, Barack Obama.
Last year, however, Netanyahu told members of his right-wing Likud party that Israel and the United States were discussing the possibility of Israel annexing settlements.
The White House swiftly denied that. — Reuters
JERUSALEM: Israelis vote Tuesday in a high-stakes election on whether to extend Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s long tenure in power despite corruption allegations against him and a strong challenge by an ex-military chief.
Bolstered by his reputation as guarantor of Israel’s security and economic growth, Netanyahu has spent more than 13 years as premier and opinion polls show that he could well win again.
He would be on track to surpass founding father David Ben-Gurion as Israel’s longest-serving prime minister if he wins.
In a last-minute appeal to right-wing voters, Netanyahu said Saturday he was planning on annexing Israeli settlements in the occupied West Bank if he wins.
The deeply controversial move could end hopes for a two-state solution with the Palestinians if done on a large scale.
Netanyahu is fighting for his political life while facing a dual threat in this year’s election.
The possibility of indictment hangs over him while a centrist alliance headed by political novice Benny Gantz is battling his Likud neck-and-neck in opinion polls.
Some surveys have shown that Netanyahu’s party could win fewer seats than Gantz’s Blue and White, but still be best placed to form a governing coalition based on support from other right-wing parties allied to him.
Through much of the acrimonious campaign, polls have shown Likud and Blue and White with around 30 seats each in the 120-seat parliament – far short of an outright majority and necessitating a coalition, as is usual in Israel.
Netanyahu heads what is already seen as the most rightwing government in Israel’s history, and if polling trends hold, his next coalition could be even further to the right.
But analysts caution against drawing conclusions just yet, pointingtothenumberofundecided voters and the possibility that smaller rightwing parties fail to win the 3.25 percent required to enter parliament.
“The Likud bloc seems to have a majority,” said Gideon Rahat of the Israel Democracy Institute think tank.
But “it still can change because opinion polls cannot really tell you whether a party will pass the threshold”.
Victory seemed sure for Netanyahu when he decided in December to call for early elections even though they were not due until November 2019.
The move by the 69-year-old known for his deft political skills was widely seen as a tactic to face the corruption allegations with a fresh electoral mandate behind him.
But since then, Gantz has emerged as a serious contender.
He has been helped by his decision to ally with two other former military chiefs as well as with ex-finance minister Yair Lapid and his Yesh Atid party, which currently holds 11 seats in parliament.
The attorney general’s announcement in February that he intends to indict Netanyahu on charges of bribery, fraud and breach of trust pending a hearing gave the premier’s opponents a further boost.
Netanyahu has employed divisive populism throughout the campaign in what critics say has amounted to the demonisation of Arab Israelis and others.
Citing a law passed last year declaring Israel the nation state of the Jewish people, he said recently the country was “not a state of all its citizens”.
He has also brokered a deal that could see the entry into parliament of a member of an extreme-right party many view as racist.
But he has bet on his experience as well, portraying himself as Israel’s essential statesman, while denouncing Gantz’s alliance as leftist and “weak” despite its security credentials and the fact that many of its policy ideas are similar to his.
In the weeks ahead of the election, the prime minister has met with his close ally US President Donald Trump, US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro and Russian President Vladimir Putin.
Trump’s decision to recognise Jerusalem as Israel’s capital and Israeli sovereignty over the Golan Heights, as well as Putin’s help in returning the remains of an Israeli soldier missing since the 1982 Lebanon war, have played in his favour.
“What is important is who leads, the diplomatic navigator,” Netanyahu said in an interview with Israel Hayom newspaper on Friday.
“I’m working against Israel’s greatest enemies. They aren’t.”
Voters could again be drawn to the right-wing leadership of a man some have referred to as “King Bibi” due to his long tenure at the top, using his nickname since childhood.
Gantz, a former paratrooper who was armed forces chief of staff from 2011-2015, has highlighted his security background while offering a centrist vision on social issues.
He has argued that he can heal divisions he says Netanyahu has exacerbated. — AFP