Israel party to propose annexation bill

An Israeli lawmaker says the Likud party plans to propose a bill that will officially annex all illegal settlements in the occupied West Bank.

Miri Regev, from Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s Likud party, said on February 4 that the bill is aimed at keeping the settlements under Israeli rule under any future development.

The controversial bill also bars Tel Aviv from restricting settlement construction for diplomatic reasons.

Israeli Ministerial Committee for Legislation is expected to discuss the proposal on February 9. If passed, the law would be a new obstacle to the talks with the Palestinian Authority that resumed in July 2013.

In December 2013, the Israeli cabinet panel endorsed another legislation proposed by Regev to annex the Jordan Valley.

Israel’s illegal settlement expansion on the occupied Palestinian land is one of the sticking points in the talks with the Palestinian Authority .

The Palestinians demand that East al-Quds (Jerusalem) be their capital and that Israel recognize borders based on the 1967 lines, which existed before the Six-Day War, when Israel captured the West Bank and East al-Quds.

Tel Aviv, however, has refused to return to the 1967 borders and is unwilling to discuss the issue of al-Quds. It also wants to keep settlements it has constructed inside the occupied Palestinian territories.

Israel also wants to keep its military presence in the Jordan Valley under any deal, but the Palestinians say an international force should be stationed there to guarantee security.