Vance criticises Israeli parliament vote on West Bank annexation

Defence affairs - Def-Geopolitics

US Vice President JD Vance said President Donald Trump would oppose Israeli annexation of the occupied West Bank, and it would not happen, suggesting a move by Israeli lawmakers towards that end looked like a “stupid political stunt”.

A bill applying Israeli law to the West Bank, a move tantamount to annexation of a territory that Palestinian leaders seek for part of a future independent state, won preliminary approval from Israeli lawmakers on Wednesday.

Asked by reporters about the vote, Vance said on Thursday, “If it was a political stunt, it is a very stupid one, and I personally take some insult to it.”

Vance spoke after US Secretary of State Marco Rubio warned that steps towards annexing the territory, which Israel captured in the 1967 Middle East war, could endanger Trump’s plan to end Israel’s war on Gaza, which has yielded a shaky ceasefire so far, with Israel violating the truce repeatedly.

“The West Bank is not going to be annexed by Israel. The policy of President Trump is that the West Bank will not be annexed. This will always be our policy,” Vance said at the end of a two-day visit to Israel.

Trump later echoed Vance’s comments, telling reporters at the White House that Israel is “not going to do anything with the West Bank.”

“Don’t worry about the West Bank,” Trump said.

The vote was sponsored by Avi Maoz, the leader of the far-right Noam party, who, until recently, was in the governing right-wing coalition, and backed by ultranationalists National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir and Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich. The reading passed by a vote of 25-24 out of 120 lawmakers.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office later said that the vote was a “deliberate political provocation” that aimed to sow division during Vance’s visit.