Jerusalem – Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s new unity government on Sunday expressed determination to extend Israeli sovereignty to Jewish settlements and the Jordan Valley in the occupied West Bank.
West Bank is a territory Palestinians want for their own independent state.
“These regions are where the Jewish nation was born and rose. It is time to apply Israeli law on them and write another great chapter in the annals of Zionism,” he said.
But while Netanyahu has set July 1 as a starting point for cabinet discussions on the highly contentious issue, there is no publicly stated deadline for annexation of land that Israel captured in the 1967 Middle East war.
Palestinians have vehemently opposed such a move, urging international sanctions against Israel in response. It would be certain to heighten tensions in the West Bank and Gaza.
“These colonial and expansionist positions confirm once again his (Netanyahu’s) ideological enmity towards peace,” the Palestinian Foreign Ministry said in a statement.
Israel’s parliament on Sunday approved Netanyahu’s new unity government, ending more than a year of political deadlock.
Israel’s longest-serving leader, Netanyahu, 70, first came to power in 1996 and has served three consecutive terms since 2009. He goes on trial on May 24 on charges of bribery, breach of trust and fraud, which he denies.
“The people wanted unity, and that is what it got,” Netanyahu told parliament, citing a desire to steer clear of a fourth election and the need for a national battle against the coronavirus crisis.
Lawmakers ratified the new administration by a vote of 73 to 46.
(Reuters/NAN)