The Israeli prime minister’s office on Thursday, October 23rd condemned a parliamentary vote to advance two bills on West Bank annexation, calling it a “deliberate political provocation” by the opposition during the visit of U.S. President JD Vance to Israel.
Earlier on Thursday, Vance said he viewed the move as an “insult” and described it as a “stupid political stunt.”
U.S. President Donald Trump said Israel would lose its crucial backing from the United States if it annexes the occupied West Bank, in a Time magazine interview published on Thursday.
“It won’t happen. It won’t happen because I gave my word to the Arab countries. And you can’t do that now. We’ve had great Arab support,” Trump said when asked what the consequences would be for Israel if it did so.
Israeli lawmakers on Wednesday advanced two bills paving the way for West Bank annexation, days after Trump secured a ceasefire deal aimed at ending Israel’s two-year offensive in Gaza, launched after Hamas’s October 2023 attacks.
The vote was boycotted and criticised by Likud, the right-wing party of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
