Far-right National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir announces that he will raise annexing the West Bank at the next cabinet meeting in response to the UK, Canada and Australia’s recognition of a Palestinian state. “The recognition by the UK, Canada, and Australia of a ‘Palestinian’ state, as a prize for the murderous Nukhba terrorists, requires immediate countermeasures,” says Ben Gvir, calling for “the immediate application of sovereignty in Judea and Samaria (the biblical name for the regions known collectively as the West Bank) and the complete dismantling of the ‘Palestinian’ Authority.”
The Nukhba force is the elite Hamas unit that spearheaded the October 7, 2023, assault on southern Israel. “I intend to submit a proposal for the application of sovereignty at the upcoming cabinet meeting,” he adds. Ben Gvir is echoed by his Otzma Yehudit party’s Yitzhak Wasserlauf, who heads the Negev, Galilee and National Resilience Ministry. “The Land of Israel belongs exclusively to the people of Israel – there is no Palestinian people and no Palestinian state,” Wasserlauf declares.
Hardline members of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s government have been calling to annex the disputed territory in response to recognition of a Palestinian state by Western powers. Earlier this month, Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich unveiled a proposal for Israel to annex 82 percent of the West Bank in a bid to prevent a Palestinian state. Not long afterwards, while signing an agreement to push ahead with a controversial settlement expansion plan, Netanyahu declared that “there will be no Palestinian state; this place belongs to us.” (Source)
