Former US envoy to the Middle East, Jason Greenblatt, said yesterday that Israel’s annexation plans were suspended, not canceled, Israeli media reported.
“I think it’s important to look at the word that was chosen by the three parties and the official statement, which is the word ‘suspend’,” Greenblatt was reported by Israeli newspaper the Jerusalem Post as saying.
“As you know,” he said, “I am myself a big proponent of recognizing Israel’s sovereignty and application of Israeli law [in the occupied West Bank].”
On Israel's Bizarre Definitions: The West Bank Is Already Annexed
by Ramzy Baroud @RamzyBaroud #Annexation #WestBank #Palestine #Palestinians #Israelhttps://t.co/wh7Lpi5G9d pic.twitter.com/uI1oEUeHmq— Antiwar.com (@Antiwarcom) July 9, 2020
According to the paper, Greenblatt stressed that Israel “never occupied Palestinian territories,” referring to the occupied West Bank.
These remarks echoed Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s comments when he said that the annexation is still on the table and the Israeli-UAE normalization deal did not stop it.
About when Israeli should annex the West Bank, Greenblatt said: “You have to deal with this step by step. You have to re-educate the public from the decades of misinformation that was given out to the rest of the world about the reality of the conflict.”
Ramzy Baroud traces the annexation of Palestine to the San Remo conference of 1920. @RamzyBaroud https://t.co/VykevrW96C #Palestine #Israel
— Mondoweiss (@Mondoweiss) May 7, 2020
“I think we need to be patient and let the prime minister and the government of Israel do what they do best,” he added.
Israel and the United Arab Emirates have reached on August 13 a deal that is expected to lead to “full normalization of relations” between the Arab nation and Israel in an agreement that United States President Donald Trump reportedly helped broker.
The agreement is considered a severe blow to Palestinian efforts aimed at isolating Israel regionally and internationally until it ends its military occupation and apartheid-like system in occupied Palestine.
(Palestine Chronicle, MEMO, Social Media)
