Secret Israeli plan to annex West Bank settlement

Israeli occupation authorities have started an “unannounced” plan to annex the illegal Israeli settlement of Ma’ale Adumim in the occupied West Bank, Quds Press reported yesterday.

Palestinian Authority (PA) official Ghassan Daghlas, who is in charge of the settlement file in the northern West Bank, told Quds Press that Israel “is seriously working on the issue of moving the West Bank to become under full Israeli sovereignty.”

He reiterated that the Israeli occupation authorities are “practically” dealing with the occupied West Bank as an “Israeli district”, noting that Israel’s fear of the international reaction pushes it not to overtly announce this annexation.

Read: PA slams Israeli moves to annex Ma’ale Adumim settlement

Israeli settlements in the occupied West Bank and East Jerusalem are illegal under international law.

According to Quds Press, the Israeli newspaper Maariv reiterated that the Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his Culture Minister Meri Regev would announce a series of celebrations on the 50th anniversary of the Israeli occupation of the West Bank.

One of these celebrations would include an official government meeting in one of the illegal Israeli settlements in the occupied West Bank.

“In case the Israeli government carried out its plan and held its meeting in the occupied West Bank,” Daghlas said, “this means that there is no dignity for the Palestinians and proves that the PA is nothing more than a civil branch [of Israel].”