Netanyahu weighing annexation plans for portions of West Bank
JERUSALEM — On the last day of June, Hagit Ofran was where she has often been in her 25 years as an Israeli peace activist, protesting on a street. There were only hours to go before the Israeli government might — or might not — announce a plan to formally annex nearly a third of the West Bank, a potentially momentous deflection point in the conflict that Ofran has devoted more than half her life to resolving.
It was nearly July 1, and she had no idea what to expect.
“We don’t even know how they would do it — by Cabinet resolution, by Knesset legislation — nothing is clear,” said Ofran, a longtime staffer of the activist group Peace Now, as she stood outside a Jerusalem courthouse protesting a case of land confiscation against a Palestinian family, the kind of case she predicts would become more common in annexed territory. “There is no plan, so there is nothing to fight.”
Late in the day, after meeting with U.S. officials, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said in a statement they had discussed “the question of sovereignty, which we are currently working on and will continue to work on in the coming days.” He did not elaborate.
As the annexation battle has built to a fever pitch in Israel — among activists and politicians, if not the general public — July 1 loomed as a possible decision day. Opposing camps squared off for weeks, trying to either force or stay Netanyahu’s hand. But on the eve of the big day, with the prime minister’s decision unknown (or unmade), activists on both sides remained ba±ed as to whether the next few days would mark a deadline or a starting line, a history-bending declaration or a silent moment of indecision.
“What disturbs us more than anything is that no one has even seen the map,” said Naomi Kahn, spokeswoman for the settlers’ advocacy group Regavim, referring exactly which areas would be included. “We don’t know if the input we’ve passed along has been received or is being considered.”
The start of July was stipulated by Israel’s six-week-old coalition government as the earliest it would consider extending Israeli sovereignty over Jewish communities in the West Bank, an issue Netanyahu placed near the center of three recent election campaigns. The Trump administration’s peace plan released in January included a provision allowing Israel to annex settlements and connecting lands equaling about 30 percent of the territory.
Amid pushback from Palestinians, activists and much of the European Union, the prime minister in recent days has been rumored to be considering less-ambitious options as a face-saving way to defuse the controversy, including annexing only a few long-established settlement blocs close to Jerusalem. In response, Kahn’s group launched an emotional ad campaign pushing Netanyahu to be “a Churchill not a Chamberlain” and move now to annex all of the Jewish settlements and the sparsely populated Jordan Valley.
Opponents like to think the uncertainty is at least partly the result of aggressive international condemnation of the plan. European diplomats have warned of damaged relations, and Arab governments have said the move could end the warming trend in their ties with Israel.
In May, the Palestinian Authority suspended its cooperation with Israeli security and civil agencies to protest the possibility of annexation, saying Netanyahu’s government would now be responsible for the well-being of millions of Palestinians in the West Bank and Gaza and answerable for any violence that flared in reaction.