The Israeli Knesset (parliament) voted Wednesday for a non-binding motion for the agenda to annex the occupied West Bank including the Jordan Valley, the Middle East Monitor reports.
According to the newspaper, the proposal is not legally or legislatively binding but rather "a declaration by the Knesset."
The resolution, which passed 71-13, declared that the West Bank is "an inseparable part of the Land of Israel, the historical, cultural and spiritual homeland of the Jewish people" and that "Israel has the natural, historical and legal right to all of the territories of the Land of Israel."
It called on the government to "apply Israeli sovereignty, law, judgment and administration to all the areas of Jewish settlement of all kinds in Judea, Samaria and the Jordan Valley," the government's term for the West Bank.
The draft resolution claimed the occupied West Bank are "an integral part of the historical, cultural, and spiritual homeland of the Jewish people," and that major Palestinian cities such as Hebron and Nablus, and the illegal settlements of Shiloh and Beit El, express "the historical continuity of the Jewish presence in the Land of Israel".
The resolution claimed the 7 October cross-border attack demonstrated that the establishment of a Palestinian state "would pose an existential threat to Israel and undermine regional stability".
The Knesset reiterated its decision that the idea of a Palestinian state "has been removed from the agenda".
Israel captured the West Bank from Jordan in the 1967 Six Day War. Much of the international community says Israel is illegally occupying the territory and views the settlements as violations of international law, which Israel disputes.
"This is our land. This is our home. The Land of Israel belongs to the people of Israel," Knesset Speaker Amir Ohana said after the vote. "In 1967, the occupation did not begin; it ended, and our homeland was returned to its rightful owners. We are the original first natives of this piece of land. Jews cannot be the 'occupier' of a land that for 3,000 years has been called Judea."
Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas's deputy, Hussein al-Sheikh, called the annexation vote a "dangerous escalation that undermines the prospects for peace, stability and the two-state solution."
Sheikh also called the vote "a direct assault on the rights of the Palestinian people," who ostensibly would not receive equal rights to their Israeli settler neighbors in a scenario where Jerusalem annexes the West Bank.
Urging the international community to intervene to roll back Israeli "violations," the senior Palestinian official said countries should recognize a Palestinian state in response.
Since the start of Israel's genocidal war on Gaza, nearly 1,000 Palestinians have been killed and more than 7,000 injured in the occupied territory by Israeli forces and illegal settlers, the Palestinian Health Ministry said.
In a landmark opinion last July, the International Court of Justice declared Israel's occupation of Palestinian territory illegal and called for the evacuation of all settlements in the West Bank and East Jerusalem.
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