Israel passes preliminary bill to annex the occupied West Bank

Israel's parliament has passed a preliminary reading of a bill to annex the occupied West Bank.

The bill, which will eventually require three votes in the Knesset before becoming law, passed with 25 MPs in support and 24 against.

“The State of Israel will apply its laws and sovereignty to the settlement areas in Judea and Samaria, in order to establish the status of these areas as an inseparable part of the sovereign State of Israel," said the bill, using the Israeli names for the West Bank.

Avigdor Lieberman of the Yisrael Beiteinu party also proposed a bill to extend Israeli sovereignty over the Maale Adumim settlement near Jerusalem, which also passed.

The bill was introduced by Avi Maoz, head of the far-right Noam party.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's Likud party criticised the passing of the bill in a statement, saying it was an attempt to embarrass the government while US Vice President JD Vance visited the country.

It dismissed the bill as “trolling… aimed at damaging our relations with the US and Israel’s great achievements in the campaign” in Gaza.

'True sovereignty will be achieved not with a show-off law... but by working properly on the ground and creating the political conditions for the recognition of our sovereignty'

- Likud party statement

“We strengthen settlements every day with actions, budgets, construction, industry, and not with words,” the Times of Israel reported Likud as saying, insisting that “true sovereignty will be achieved not with a show-off law for the protocol, but by working properly on the ground and creating the political conditions appropriate for the recognition of our sovereignty, as was done in the Golan Heights and in Jerusalem”.

All but one Likud MP boycotted the vote, with Yuli Edelstein breaking ranks to cast a decisive vote.

Israel has threatened to annex all or part of the West Bank, which it has occupied since 1967, for many years now.

Last month, Israel’s finance minister and de facto "governor" of the West Bank, Bezalel Smotrich, unveiled a controversial plan to annex the vast majority of the territory.

Under the proposal, only six isolated enclaves - where major Palestinian cities such as Jenin, Tulkarm, Nablus, Ramallah, Jericho and Hebron are located - would remain outside of Israeli control.

All other areas, including dozens of towns and villages, would be formally annexed.

Smotrich described the principle behind the plan as taking control of “maximum land with minimum [Palestinian] population”.

According to the plan, the Palestinian Authority (PA) - which was established under the 1993 Oslo Accords between Israel and the Palestine Liberation Organisation, and serves as the internationally recognised governing body in parts of the West Bank - would be gradually dismantled. 

In its place, Smotrich suggested the establishment of “regional civilian management alternatives”.

If the PA were to resist, it would be “destroyed”, he warned.