Israel captured the West Bank in1967. (Photo: Reuters) Knesset, the Israeli house of representatives, on Wednesday gave preliminary approval to a contentious bill seeking to apply Israeli law to the occupied West Bank. The bill, titled “Application of Israeli Sovereignty in Judea and Samaria, 2025,” was initiated by far-right MP Avi Maoz, who represents the Noam party.
Netanyahu’s Likud party annexation bill
The bill was passed by a vote of 25-24 out of 120 lawmakers in the Israeli parliament. While Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s Likud party did not support the legislation, some members of his coalition, National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir’s Jewish Power party and Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich’s Religious Zionism, voted in favour of it.
A second bill by an opposition party proposing the annexation of the Maale Adumim settlement also passed by 31-9.
While the bill passed the initial vote, it will have to go through a lengthy legislative process involving three more rounds to ultimately pass.
Annexation of West Bank
Members of Netanyahu’s coalition have been calling for years for Israel to formally annex parts of the West Bank, territory to which Israel cites biblical and historical ties.
Israel argues the territories it captured in the 1967 war are not occupied in legal terms because they are on disputed lands, but the United Nations and most of the international community regard them as occupied.
The UN’s highest court in 2024 said that Israel’s occupation of Palestinian territories, including the West Bank, and its settlements there are illegal and should be withdrawn as soon as possible.
Even if the bill is passed, Israel will struggle to gain international recognition for it, as Jerusalem’s most crucial backer, the US, has already said it would not allow the annexation of the West Bank.
Red line for UAE
The annexation of the West Bank will also further alienate Israel in its neighbourhood. The UAE, the most prominent Arab country to establish ties with Israel under the so-called Abraham Accords brokered by Trump in his first term in office, last month warned that annexation of the West Bank was a red line for the Gulf state.
Hamas responds
Hamas said in a statement on Wednesday that the Israeli votes on the West Bank and Maale Adumim bills reflected “the ugly face of the colonial occupation”.
“We affirm that the occupation’s frantic attempts to annex West Bank lands are invalid and illegitimate,” it said.
Why Israel wants to annex West Bank now
Though the annexation of the land, which Palestinians want for a future state, has been a long-running topic in Israel, Netanyahu walked back on his 2020 election promise in favour of normalising ties with the United Arab Emirates and Bahrain.
He reignited the topic in response to several Western countries recognising a Palestinian state in September.
