Most House Democrats signed a letter on Thursday warning the Israeli government against trying to annex territory in Judea, Samaria or Gaza.
Led by Reps. Brad Schneider (D-Ill.) and Jamie Raskin (D-Md.), and joined by the entire Democratic House leadership, the 178 congressmen told Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, Defense Minister Israel Katz and Foreign Minister Gideon Sa’ar that Israeli annexation of any territory would “plunge the region” into “further chaos and violence.”
“We are convinced that unilateral steps by either side, including Israeli annexation of territory in the West Bank or Gaza, would move Israelis and Palestinians further away from negotiations and further away from a just, sustainable peace,” the lawmakers wrote. “We are particularly troubled by increasing public calls to unilaterally annex West Bank territory.”
“Moves toward annexation would undermine Israel’s progress on normalization, prevent international cooperation to rebuild Gaza after this devastating war, risk instability in Jordan and even further strain ties with key European partners,” the letter adds.
The 35 House Democrats who did not sign the letter included both strong supporters of Israel, like Reps. Josh Gottheimer (D-N.J.) and Ritchie Torres (D-N.Y.), and the Jewish state’s harshest Democratic critics, like Reps. Rashida Tlaib (D-Mich.) and Ilhan Omar (D-Minn.).
In Schneider’s statement describing the timing of the letter, the congressman pointed to a social media post from Itamar Ben-Gvir, Israel’s minister of national security, urging the annexation of Judea and Samaria through the “application of sovereignty” after several Western countries recognized the “state of Palestine” earlier this week.
“The recognition by Britain, Canada and Australia of a ‘Palestinian’ state as a reward for the Nukhba Force murderers requires immediate countermeasures: the immediate imposition of sovereignty in Judea and Samaria and the complete crushing of the ‘Palestinian’ terrorist authority,” Ben-Gvir wrote in Hebrew on Sunday.
In an interview on Thursday, Sa’ar said that Israel is not considering annexing Judea and Samaria in their entirety.
“There is no intention of even discussing the annexation of Palestinian Authority territories, because we don’t want to control the Palestinians,” Sa’ar told the Italian newspaper Corriere Della Sera, per an English translation. “What can be discussed, but hasn’t yet been decided, is the implementation of Israeli law on the Israeli communities located there and not under the Palestinian Authority.”
U.S. President Donald Trump reportedly told leaders from Egypt, Jordan, Qatar, Turkey and the United Arab Emirates on Tuesday that he would not allow Netanyahu to annex Judea and Samaria.
Netanyahu arrived in New York City on Thursday for his speech to the U.N. General Assembly and is scheduled to meet with Trump at the White House on Monday.
