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Anshel Pfeffer

ByAnshel Pfeffer, anshel pfeffer

Analysis

There’s a plan — but no map, no timetable and no draft law

July 1 came and went this week without a move by the Israeli government towards annexation

July 2, 2020 11:25
Benjamin Netanyahu outlining a possible annexation scenario in the West Bank on September 10, 2019
2 min read

July 1 came and went this week without a move by the Israeli government towards annexing parts of the West Bank. Not even a word from prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu, beyond the laconic statement that “discussions are ongoing”.

Six months after US President Donald Trump unveiled his “deal of the century” peace plan, and two months after Mr Netanyahu insisted that the coalition agreement between Likud and Blue and White include July 1 as the date from which the government and Knesset could begin debating annexation, there is no map, no draft of a law, and no timetable for carrying it out.

Likud ministers insisted on Wednesday that this was just a temporary delay, and within “weeks to months,” as Energy Minister Yuval Steinitz said in a radio interview, Israel would apply its sovereignty to some of the West Bank settlements. But none of them could specify which settlements and when.

In a Knesset committee meeting on Wednesday, a senior official from the Justice Ministry said that his office had not yet been consulted on the legal ramifications of annexation while a representative of the National Security Council admitted that their report had yet to be brought to cabinet and would be presented in “the next few days.” Meanwhile, settlement Affairs Minister Tzipi Hotovely, who is expected to become Israel’s new ambassador to Britain in the coming months, said in an interview with Arutz Sheva, a settlers news organisation, that talks were ongoing with the Trump administration regarding the scale of annexation, with the aim of reaching “significant sovereignty of major parts of Judea and Samaria”.