Jerusalem: Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu pledged Saturday to annex settlements in the occupied West Bank if he wins the upcoming general election.
His comments come just days before the closely-fought April 9 poll and could be seen as an appeal to rightwing voters, who do not believe in the feasibility of a peace agreement with the Palestinians.
“I will apply (Israeli) sovereignty, but I don’t distinguish between settlement blocs and isolated settlements,” he said in an interview to Channel 12 television.
Settlements built on land occupied by Israel in the 1967 Six-Day War are deemed illegal by the international community and their ongoing construction is seen as a major barrier to peace.
Annexation could prove to be the death knell for the two-state solution.
In an interview broadcast Friday, Netanyahu said he told US President Donald Trump he would not remove settlements or people as part of a future American peace plan.
“I said there shouldn’t be the removal of even one settlement” from the occupied West Bank, Netanyahu told Israel’s Channel 13 television.
More than 400,000 Israelis live in West Bank settlements as part of its military occupation of the territory, where more than 2.5 million Palestinians live.
A further 200,000 Israelis live in settlements in occupied east Jerusalem, over which Israel has already implemented full sovereignty.
Washington is expected to unveil proposals for Israeli-Palestinian peace sometime after Tuesday’s Israeli election in which Netanyahu is seeking a fifth term.
The Israeli prime minister was asked if he was familiar with the details of the US plan, replying he knew “what should be in it.”
Along with settlements, “our ongoing control of all the territory west of the Jordan” River was a further condition set by the Israeli premier for any US-led peace initiative.
Netanyahu said he informed Trump not “even one person” would be evicted from a settlement.
The US president on Saturday was cautious about the outcome of the Israeli election on Tuesday, which he called a close race between “two good people”.
“How is the race going by the way? How is it, who’s going to win the race? Tell me, I don’t know,” Trump asked the Republican Jewish Coalition in Las Vegas.
“Well, it’s going to be close — I think it’s going to be close. Two good people,” he said, referring to incumbent Benjamin Netanyahu and rival Benny Gantz.
The latest polls place Netanyahu and ex-military chief Gantz neck and neck, but give the former the advantage.
While Netanyahu has a close relationship with the US president, Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas cut off relations with Washington after Trump declared the disputed city of Jerusalem Israel’s capital in December 2017.
The Palestinians say the US government’s pro-Israel bias meant it could no longer lead peace negotiations between them and Israel, while US officials argue their plan will be fair.
Israeli-Palestinian peace efforts have been at a standstill since 2014, when a drive for a deal by Barack Obama’s administration collapsed.
[source_without_link]AFP[/source_without_link]