13 August 2019
MIDDLE EAST MONITOR — Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is pushing US President Donald Trump to give the go-ahead for Israel’s annexation of the West Bank before the country’s upcoming general election.
Officials in the Israeli Prime Minister’s Office told the Times of Israel’s Hebrew-language site on Sunday that Netanyahu is seeking a public declaration from President Trump in support of Israel’s annexation of “Area C” of the occupied West Bank, where the majority of its some 500 illegal settlements are located.
Netanyahu is pushing for President Trump to issue such a declaration before Israel’s general election on 17 September in a bid to secure his Likud party’s victory and therefore his re-election as prime minister.
The revelation has angered the Palestinian Authority (PA), with spokesman for President Mahmoud Abbas, Nabil Abu Rudeineh, yesterday slamming the planned declaration as “playing with fire”.
“This step would neither establish any right [to Israel in the West Bank], nor it will create a viable false reality,” Abu Rudeineh stressed, adding that any decision which affects Palestinian national rights and violates international resolutions will be considered “illegitimate”.
For its part, the White House has declined to comment on the allegations. […]
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