US Warns as Israel Pushing West Bank Annexation Plan

DID Press: Israeli lawmakers on Wednesday approved two preliminary bills to formally annex the occupied West Bank — a move openly backed by the government’s far-right ministers but strongly opposed by U.S. President Donald Trump and several regional and international powers.

As U.S. Vice President J.D. Vance visited Israel to help consolidate Gaza ceasefire, President Trump reacted sharply to the vote, saying, “I will not allow Israel to annex the West Bank. It’s not going to happen.”

In the Knesset’s initial vote, the first proposal — to annex the settlement of Ma’ale Adumim — passed with 32 votes in favor and 9 against.
The second bill, calling for the full annexation of the West Bank, was approved with 25 votes in favor and 24 opposed.

Far-right Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich welcomed the outcome, writing online: “The Knesset has spoken, the people have spoken. The time has come to apply full sovereignty over all of Judea and Samaria.”

In response, the Palestinian Ministry of Foreign Affairs strongly condemned the move, stressing that “the occupied Palestinian territories — including Jerusalem and Gaza — form a single geographic entity over which Israel has no sovereignty.”

Jordan’s Foreign Ministry also denounced the vote as a “flagrant violation of international law and a serious threat to the two-state solution.”

The West Bank has been under Israeli occupation since 1967, and all Israeli settlements there are considered illegal under international law. Nevertheless, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s government continues to support their expansion.