- Pakistan condemns Israeli West Bank annexation push as unlawful.
- MoFA cites breaches of international law, UNSC resolutions.
- Support reaffirmed for State of Palestine on pre-1967 borders.
Pakistan strongly condemned Israel’s attempt to extend its so-called “sovereignty” over parts of the occupied West Bank, including illegal settlements, through a draft law introduced in the occupying power’s legislature, calling the move a flagrant breach of international law and relevant UN Security Council resolutions.
In a statement issued by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MoFA) on Thursday, Pakistan said such “provocative and unlawful measures” undermine efforts to achieve peace and stability, and urged the international community to take urgent, decisive steps to halt the move and hold the Israeli occupying forces to account for continuing violations.
Reaffirming long-standing policy, Pakistan pledged to work with regional and international partners to uphold the rights of Palestinians, including the right to self-determination, and reiterated support for an independent, sovereign, viable and contiguous State of Palestine on pre-1967 borders with Al-Quds Al-Sharif as its capital.
Israeli lawmakers on Wednesday voted in favour of advancing two bills on annexing the occupied West Bank, barely a week after President Donald Trump pushed through a deal aimed at ending a two-year Israeli offensive in the Gaza Strip, an ambition openly promoted by Israeli far-right ministers in recent months.
During a preliminary reading on Wednesday, lawmakers voted in favour of examining two bills, which means they will be brought forward for further readings in parliament.
The first text, passed by 32 MPs to nine, proposed annexing Maale Adumim, a large Israeli settlement home to some 40,000 people just east of Jerusalem.
The second proposal to annex the entire West Bank was supported by 25 MPs, while 24 voted against.
The Knesset, as the Israeli parliament is known, has 120 members.
“The time has come to impose full sovereignty over all of Judea and Samaria — the inheritance of our ancestors — and to promote peace agreements in exchange for peace with our neighbours with strength,” he said, using the Israeli Biblical term for the West Bank.
In a statement, the Ramallah-based Palestinian foreign ministry condemned the Knesset’s vote, saying it “strongly rejects the Knesset’s attempts to annex Palestinian land”.
“The ministry emphasised that the occupied Palestinian territories in the West Bank, including Jerusalem, and the Gaza Strip, constitute a single geographic unit over which Israel has no sovereignty,” it said, as reported by Palestinian official news agency Wafa.
Jordan’s foreign ministry also said it “strongly condemned” the votes, which it called “a blatant violation of international law and a grave undermining of the two-state solution”.
All of Israel’s settlements in the West Bank are illegal under international law.
US Secretary of State Marco Rubio on Wednesday warned Israel against annexing the West Bank, saying steps taken by parliament and settler violence threatened a Gaza peace deal.
“I think the president’s made clear that’s not something we can be supportive of right now,” Rubio said of annexation as he boarded his plane for a visit to Israel.
Annexation moves are “threatening for the peace deal,” he told reporters.
“They’re a democracy, they’re going to have their votes, and people are going to take these positions,” he said.
“But at this time, it’s something that we…think might be counterproductive,” he said.
— With additional input from AFP
