RIYADH: Saudi Arabia has led Arab and Islamic condemnation of an Israeli bill passed in the Knesset on Wednesday evening imposing sovereignty over the West Bank and the Jordan Valley to annex Palestinian territory occupied since the 1967 Middle East War.
The Kingdom, along with Bahrain, Egypt, Indonesia, Jordan, Nigeria, the State of Palestine, Qatar, Turkiye and the UAE, as well as the Arab League and the Organization of Islamic Cooperation, said Israel’s actions undermined efforts to achieve peace through the two-state solution and reflected an ongoing insistence on destruction and destabilization.
“Israel does not have sovereignty over the Occupied Palestinian Territory ... This unilateral move by Israel has no legal effect and cannot alter the legal status of the OPT, particularly East Jerusalem, which remains an integral part of this territory,” they stated.
Since the peace agreement between Israel and the Palestine Liberation Organization in 1993, Palestinians have aimed to establish an independent state in the occupied West Bank and Gaza Strip, with East Jerusalem as its capital. However, Israeli policies — such as expanding settlements, segregating towns in the West Bank with military checkpoints and the bombing and significant destruction of the Gaza Strip since late 2023 — have all obstructed the realization of Palestinian statehood aspirations.
Israel effectively annexed East Jerusalem in 1980 and the Golan Heights — a territory captured from Syria — in 1981, moves not recognized by most of the international community.
On Wednesday evening, more than 70 members of the Israeli Knesset voted in favor of a motion calling on the government to impose sovereignty over the West Bank and the Jordan Valley. While the motion is deemed “symbolic” and does not change the legal status of the Palestinian territory, it reflects the intention of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s far-right government to annex the area, which over 500,000 settlers consider has significant historical and religious importance. A vote on annexing the Jordan Valley, a mineral and water-rich area that comprises a third of the West Bank, did not take place in the summer of 2020 due to international pressure.
Saudi Arabia and other countries said on Thursday that the Israeli parliamentarian motion violated several UN Security Council resolutions, including 242 (1967), 338 (1973), and 2334 (2016), which affirm the invalidity of all measures aimed at legitimizing the occupation of Palestinian territories.
“Israeli actions will only fuel tensions in the region, exacerbated by Israel’s aggression against the Gaza Strip and the ensuing humanitarian crisis in the enclave,” they stated. They also confirmed their commitment to the two-state solution and urged the international community to take immediate action against illegal Israeli policies that aimed to impose a “fait accompli by force.”
Earlier, Saudi Arabia’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs described the Israeli motion as “provocative,” saying it undermined efforts to establish lasting peace and highlighted Tel Aviv’s insistence on “sabotage and destruction.”
The Kingdom reaffirmed its support for Palestinians’ right to self-determination, statehood and a dignified existence on their land “within an independent state along the 1967 borders, with Al-Quds Al-Sharif as its capital.”
Saudi Arabia and France will next week lead an international conference at UN headquarters in New York to garner support for recognizing a Palestinian state and to put an end to the war in Gaza, where Israel faces accusations of war crimes and genocide.
