President Trump said on Thursday that he “will not allow” Israel to annex the Israeli-occupied West Bank, comments that came after he reportedly made such a pledge during a meeting with Arab and Muslim officials on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly in New York.
“I will not allow Israel to annex the West Bank. It’s not going to happen,” Trump told reporters in the Oval Office. “I’m not allowing Israel to annex the West Bank. There’s been enough. It’s time to stop now.”
Israeli officials have been discussing the idea of annexing parts of the West Bank in response to several Western countries recognizing a Palestinian state. While some Trump officials have signaled the US wouldn’t oppose the plan, a senior Israeli official told The Times of Israel that the Trump administration has privately cautioned against the idea.
However, the official said that Israel did not feel the warning marked “an end to the discussion” and that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu will discuss it with Trump when he visits the White House next week for the fourth time this year.
Also on Thursday, Israeli Foreign Minister Gideon Sa’ar said that Israel won’t consider annexing parts of the West Bank administered by the Palestinian Authority, but may “implement Israeli law” on Jewish settlements, which are illegal under international law.
“There is no intention of even discussing the annexation of Palestinian Authority territories because we don’t want to control the Palestinians,” Sa’ar said. “What can be discussed, but hasn’t yet been decided, is implementing Israeli law on the Israeli communities located there and not under the Palestinian Authority.”
While Israel hasn’t formally annexed the West Bank, it continues to expand settlements in the territory, which requires forcibly displacing Palestinians. The Trump administration has backed Israel’s recent approval of the major E1 settlement, which Israeli Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich has said will “erase” the idea of a Palestinian state.
