Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu Promises to Annex the West Bank if Reelected in April

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on Saturday, April 6 that if he is reelected as the country’s head of government, he will pledge to his own supporters complete annexation of the Palestinian West Bank. In a television interview with Keshet 12,  Netanyahu said that annexing the West Bank will “extend Israeli sovereignty”. Netanyahu and his conservative Likud party are competing for national elections this Tuesday, April 9 alongside other allied right-wing to far-right political parties with nationalist and religious tendencies.

Since the end of the Six Day War in 1967, the Israeli government has occupied the Palestinian Arab majority West Bank as well as the Golan Heights and constructed Israeli filled settlements deemed illegal under international law. The only territories Israel withdrew after the Six Day War was the Sinai Peninsula in 1982 and the Gaza Strip in 2005. In March 2019, U.S. President Donald Trump officially recognized the occupied Golan Heights as a full part of the Israeli state. Netanyahu has not been supportive of the Two State Solution between Israel and Palestine in recent times due to a lack of action from the Palestinian government and pressure from the country’s political right.