The annexation of parts of the West Bank is not currently on the agenda, Israeli Ambassador to the UK Tzipi Hotovely said Wednesday during a first public appearance with her counterparts from the United Arab Emirates and Bahrain.
During a webinar about the so-called Abraham Accords between those countries and Israel, the moderator asked Mansoor Abulhoul and Sheikh Fawaz bin Mohamed bin Khalifa Al Khalifa, the Emirati and Bahraini envoys to London, respectively, if an Israeli annexation would damage their countries’ diplomatic ties with Jerusalem.
Before any of them could answer, Hotovely replied: “I think we should discuss that when it will be on the diplomatic table. It’s not.”
The moderator, veteran UK journalist and politician Lord Daniel Finkelstein, accepted that reply and moved on to other questions.
Hotovely, a former lawmaker for Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s Likud party, drew notice as one of Israel’s most prominent champions of the settlement movement. She was one of the first lawmakers to advocate for the annexation of the entire West Bank.
Before she arrived in Britain to assume the ambassador post last month, she served as minister for settlement affairs, a position in which she continued to endorse plans to unilaterally apply sovereignty over large parts of the West Bank.
Parts of Israel’s far-right are calling on Netanyahu to advance the annexation of at least parts of the West Bank before US President Donald Trump leaves the White House on January 20, as his successor, Joe Biden, is expected to block any such moves. READ MORE
