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Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu says there is no change in his bid to annex large parts of the occupied West Bank and the strategic Jordan Valley despite allegations that a normalization deal with the UAE included a halt to the annexation plan.
“There is no change to my plan to extend sovereignty, our sovereignty in Judea and Samaria, in full coordination with the United States,” Netanyahu said in Jerusalem al-Quds, using the biblical name for the occupied West Bank.
An unnamed senior Israeli political source also said, “Applying sovereignty [to the West Bank] is on the table and we’re committed to it. The Trump administration requested to temporarily suspend the announcement [of annexation] to first implement the historic peace agreement with the UAE.”
US Ambassador to Israel David Friedman too said of the annexation, “It’s off the table now but it’s not off the table permanently. You can’t have peace and annexation at the same time.”
The statements called UAE Crown Prince Sheikh Mohammed bin Zayed Al Nahyan’s bluff that Israel’s annexation plans were off the table.
“An agreement was reached to stop further Israeli annexation of Palestinian territories,” he posted on Twitter.
Trump had also claimed on Thursday night that Tel Aviv agreed to suspend the West Bank annexation as part of its agreement to normalize relations with Abu Dhabi, even though he qualified his statement.
“Right now it’s off the table, I can’t talk about sometime in the future, that’s a big statement, but right now it’s off the table,” the US president said.
Many Palestinians believe the Israeli plans to annex one-third of the already illegally occupied West Bank, including parts of the strategic Jordan Valley, is only a formality and a de facto Israeli occupation of their land has been underway for many years.
“Israel’s annexation plan has been in process since 1967,” said Salah Khawaja, coordinator of an anti-occupation campaign called the Popular Committee to Resist the Wall and the Settlements.
“Israel has since built settlements and the wall. And so, annexation has been ongoing for a long time,” he added.
UAE Minister of State for Foreign Affairs Anwar Gargash defended the normalization deal with the Israeli regime, telling a media briefing that “most countries will see this as a bold step to secure a two-state solution, allowing time for negotiations.”
Palestinians reject Israel-UAE deal
While Israeli and Emirati officials brag about the agreement, Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas voiced his “strong rejection and condemnation” and called for an emergency meeting of the Arab League and the Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC).
In a statement, Abbas called the deal an “aggression” against the Palestinian people and a “betrayal” of their cause.
The Islamic resistance movement, Hamas, also rejected in a statement the Israel-UAE pact as a “stab in the back of the Palestinian people and a desperate attempt to undermine the resistance front, which aims to defeat the Israeli occupation and restore Palestinians’ rights”.
The movement highlighted that “Emirati rulers will gain nothing but shame and loss, as they will sooner or later realize that the replacement of Arab allies with the Israeli occupation equals to political suicide”.
The Palestinian Islamic Jihad Movement too condemned the deal. The movement noted that normalization of ties between Tel Aviv and Abu Dhabi marks a moral and strategic downfall in the UAE’s policies.
“The attempt to justify this agreement by alleging that it stopped the annexation scheme [in the West Bank] is purely misleading and cannot fool anyone. This deal is a reward for the Occupation to press ahead with its crimes and the act of aggression, and serves as a cover for the advancement of [US President Donald Trump’s so-called] deal of century plot,” Islamic Jihad noted.
Trump’s so-called “peace” plan envisions Jerusalem al-Quds as “Israel’s undivided capital” and allows the Tel Aviv regime to annex settlements in the occupied West Bank and the Jordan Valley. The plan also denies the right of return of Palestinian refugees to their homeland, among other controversial terms. The plan has triggered waves of protest rallies around the globe.
The Palestinian Fatah movement said the UAE is flouting its national, religious, and humanitarian duties toward the Palestinian cause with the deal.
The normalization of relations between Israel and the UAE is a “bad bet,” showing “absolute dependence on the enemies of the Arab people,” Abbas Zaki, a member of Fatah’s Central Committee, told Turkey’s official Anadolu news agency on Thursday.
The deal amounts to “a comprehensive abandonment of the decisions of Arab summits and of the national, religious, and humanitarian duties towards the Palestinian cause,” he added.
“I would not wish for an Arab to fall into this swamp,” Zaki pointed out.
