Palestinians march against annexation plan of Israelis
GAZA CITY: Thousands of Palestinians protested on Wednesday in Gaza against Israel’s West Bank annexation plans.
An Israeli minister said the annexation might be weeks away, as a start date on Wednesday for cabinet discussions of the move slipped by in the absence of a green light from Washington. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s centre-right coalition government had set July 1 as the date from which it could begin implementing US President Donald Trump’s Middle East peace proposal.
In Gaza City, several thousand protesters gathered, some brandishing Palestinian flags and placards condemning Trump at a rally.
“The resistance must be revived,” Gaza protester Rafeeq Inaiah said. “Israel is afraid of force.”
Smaller demonstrations were held in the West Bank cities of Ramallah and Jericho, attended by a handful of left-wing Israeli politicians opposed to annexation.
“We want to affirm our support for peace,” former Labour party official Ophir Pines-paz said.
Hamas group that controls Gaza, fired some 20 rockets from the coastal Palestinian enclave into the Mediterranean Sea on Wednesday, a move aimed at dissuading Israel from moving forward, Hamas sources said.
Writing in Israel’s Yedioth Ahronoth newspaper on Wednesday, Britain’s Prime Minister Boris Johnson said that although he was a “passionate defender of Israel,” he viewed annexation as “contrary to Israel’s own long-term interests.”
“Annexation would represent a violation of international law,” he said. Australia, in a rare criticism of Israel, warned against “unilateral annexation or change in status of territory on the West Bank.”
France’s foreign minister, Jean-yves Le Drian, told French parliament that “an annexation decision could not be left without consequences”.
He said Paris was “examining different options at a national level and also in coordination with
our main European partners”. Amnesty International’s deputy Middle East chief Saleh Higazi said: “International law is crystal clear on this matter — annexation is unlawful,” adding that if Israel moves forward it “points to the ‘law of the jungle.’”
Israel’s Defence Minister and alternate Prime Minister Benny Gantz has said annexation must wait until the coronavirus crisis has been contained, amid a sharp spike in new Israeli and Palestinian cases.