Vance slams Israeli vote on West Bank annexation as ‘insult’, says Trump will oppose
The US vice-president says a move by Israeli lawmakers towards that end looks like a stupid ‘political stunt’
US Vice-President J.D. Vance said on Thursday President Donald Trump would oppose Israeli annexation of the occupied West Bank and it would not happen, suggesting a move by Israeli lawmakers towards that end looked like a stupid “political stunt”.
A bill applying Israeli law to the West Bank, a move tantamount to annexation of a territory that Palestinians seek for part of a future independent state, won preliminary approval from Israeli lawmakers on Wednesday.
Asked by reporters about the vote, Vance said: “If it was a political stunt, it is a very stupid one, and I personally take some insult to it.”
Vance spoke after US Secretary of State Marco Rubio warned that steps towards annexing the territory, which Israel captured in the 1967 Middle East war, could endanger Trump’s plan to end the Gaza war, which has yielded a shaky ceasefire so far.
“The West Bank is not going to be annexed by Israel. The policy of President Trump is that the West Bank will not be annexed. This will always be our policy,” Vance said at the end of a two-day visit to Israel.
The vote was sponsored by a far-right opposition lawmaker who until recently was in the ruling right-wing coalition, and backed by ultranationalists National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir and Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich. The reading passed by a vote of 25-24 out of 120 lawmakers.