Jerusalem :
A senior Palestinian official said Tuesday that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s pledge to annex the Jordan Valley if re-elected destroyed all chances of Israeli-Palestinian peace.
“He is not only destroying the two-state solution, he is destroying all chances of peace,” senior official Hanan Ashrawi told AFP.
“This is a total game changer.”
Saeb Erekat, the chief Palestinian negotiator, said the annexation would be “manifestly illegal”.
He called on the international community to “act now to prevent Netanyahu and his allies from burying any remaining prospects for peace”.
Earlier on Tuesday, Netanyahu said he would immediately annex the Jordan Valley, a strategically important part of the occupied West Bank, if he were re-elected on September 17.
He also reiterated his intention to annex Israeli settlements throughout the West Bank if re-elected, saying it would be done in coordination with US President Donald Trump but without giving a time frame.
The Jordan Valley accounts for around one-third of the West Bank and Israeli right-wing politicians have long viewed the area as a part of the territory they would never retreat from.
Israeli settlements are located in what is known as Area C of the West Bank, which accounts for some 60 percent of the territory, including the vast majority of the Jordan Valley.
Netanyahu said his annexation plans would not include Palestinian cities, such as the Jordan Valley’s Jericho.
Ashrawi said the move, which would leave the Palestinian government with self-rule over a number of cities in the West Bank, was “worse than apartheid”.
“He is trying to take the land without the people and saying you are free to leave,” she added.
“In every (Israeli) election we pay the price, with our rights, with our lands.”
A spokesman for Palestinian Islamist movement Hamas accused Netanyahu of seeking “right-wing votes by selling the illusion to his public that he can occupy Palestinian land forever.” Separately, a senior Hamas official Bassem Naim predicted it could “lead to an explosion”.
Israel occupied the West Bank in a 1967 war in a move never recognised by the international community.
More than 400,000 Israelis live in West Bank settlements considered illegal under international law. Around 2.7 million Palestinians live in the territory.
