During a visit to Jordan Valley on Tuesday, Israeli opposition leader Benny Gantz pledged to annex the occupied Jordan Valley “in coordination with the international community”, should he win the upcoming election.
Gantz said that the occupied Jordan Valley is “the State of Israel’s eastern defensive wall in any future scenario,” reported the Jerusalem Post.
בקעת הירדן היא חומת המגן המזרחית של מדינת ישראל בכל תרחיש עתידי.
לאחר הבחירות נפעל להחלת הריבונות במהלך לאומי מוסכם ובתיאום עם הקהילה הבינלאומית. pic.twitter.com/qQ7piMMBYo— בני גנץ – Benny Gantz (@gantzbe) January 21, 2020
Gantz, who is also the leader of the Blue and White party, referred to the Palestinian region as “an inseparable part of the State of Israel.”
For his part, Israel’s right-wing Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu urged his opponent “not to wait until after the election, but rather support the measure if it is brought before the Knesset for a vote in the coming weeks”, The Times of Israel reported.
“Benny Gantz, I expect an answer by the end of the day,” the Prime Minister challenged Gantz, his main political opponent in the last two general elections.
נתניהו, במקום סיפוח אתה מתעסק שנים בטיוח. נסה פעם אחת לא לשקר וקח טיפ: אתה יכול להחיל את החוק הישראלי על הבקעה בהחלטת ממשלה תוך שעתיים, בלי שום דיון בכנסת.
נראה אותך.— בני גנץ – Benny Gantz (@gantzbe) January 21, 2020
Gantz’s reply, however, arrived in the form of a tweet shortly after Netanyahu’s ultimatum. “Try for once not to lie and here’s a tip — you can apply Israeli law in the Jordan Valley in a cabinet decision within two hours, without any Knesset discussion. Let’s see you,” Gantz tweeted on Tuesday.
Commenting on the matter, Palestinian journalist, Ramzy Baroud said, “The call for annexing major illegal settlement blocs, along with the Jordan Valley, is now a common demand made by all of Israel’s main political parties, including Gantz’s own.”
@RashidaTlaib @IlhanMN @mikopeled @AMPalestine @jstreetdotorg @TulsiGabbard @ArabAmericanNY @CAIRNational @JVPliveIthaca @Mondoweiss @jvpliveNY @hoffman4US2018 @HowieHawkins20
Netanyahu on Steroids: What a Gantz-led Government Means for Palestine https://t.co/cTcoSfiDfC— Jim Brash (@jimmy_brash) September 29, 2019
“Gantz, possibly Israel’s next prime minister, has repeatedly made it clear that he would be strengthening, rather than dismantling, the illegal settlements in the West Bank,” Baroud, who is also the editor of the Palestine Chronicle, added, “and has even attempted to take ownership of Netanyahu’s pledge to annex the Jordan Valley.”
(The Palestine Chronicle)
