Home / We must reject Israeli annexation of the West Bank
Israel’s annexation of the West Bank is a road to perpetual conflict in the Middle East
The threatening Israeli annexation is a result of US President Donald Trump’s overt support of Israeli policies and expansion in the West Bank, which reached a climax in January 2020 with Trump’s Deal of the Century plan backing Israeli annexations in the West Bank.
An annexation of the occupied Palestinian territory contravenes multiple UN Security Council resolutions, including 242 (1967), 478 (1980) and 2334 (2016), which declare that the establishment of settlements by Israel in the Arab territories occupied since 1967 has no legal validity and constitutes a serious obstacle to the achievement of a comprehensive, just and lasting peace in the Middle East.
It will mean a dramatic worsening of all aspects of the existing conflict in the region, between the occupying power – Israel – and the oppressed Palestinian people. It will perpetuate Israeli occupation, the overruling of the rights of the Palestinian people, their rights to self-determination, to their own state and their rights as human being, and it will prevent the establishment of a Palestinian state.
Annexation is a serious violation of international law and spells the end to a viable two-state solution, one backed by the UN in various resolutions and by the international community, including the EU and its member states.
The European Left calls on the EU and the EU member states, and the international community, to increase their political pressure on the Israeli government:
• We call for the EU and EU members states and the international community to express their condemnation of the plans to annex the West Bank both directly to the Israeli government – and in their capacity as member of the UN Security Council, if they are -, and to advocate for the European Union to take a position unanimously rejecting the plans.
• Immediate and urgent measures should be put in place to ensure respect for international law and the implementation of the relevant UN resolutions and decisions.
• We call for the recognition of the state of Palestine by the EU and EU member states – and by as many countries and institutions as possible.
• We call for a strengthening of the banning of goods from the Israeli settlements and demand that the EU sanction European companies that make a profit in the occupied territories.
• We demand the suspension of the EU-Israel Association Agreement, which is based on the Oslo Accords of 1993, as long as Israel violates international law.
• We call for the suspension of military cooperation with Israel, as well as the prohibition of any arms trade.
• We demand for an end to Israel’s impunity of the crimes committed against the Palestinian people.
The European Left supports a total Israeli withdrawal from the occupied Palestinian territories in keeping with UN resolutions. We reiterate our support for a just peace based on the UN resolutions with a Palestinian state on the 1967 borders, with east Jerusalem as its capital and with the return of the Palestinian refugees.
