By Alisha Upadhyay
While the pandemic engraves its name in the history textbook and economic and racial tensions spread like a wildfire, Israel's threat to annex the west bank is yet another international crisis waiting to happen.
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Why does Israel want to Annex West Bank?
The West Bank is the disputed part of the land on which both Israel and Palestine lay their claims. Occupied by Israel it was once bound to Palestine. Currently, around 430,000 Israeli settlers and 2 to 3 million Palestinian refugees live in the conflicted piece of land, its final status being unresolved.
A map of Israel and Palestine issued by the UN. Wikimedia commons
Although Israeli president Netanyahu does not use the term annexations, as it is against the laws of the UN. It does involve applying force and declaring 30% of the Jordan Valley as part of Israeli sovereignty. This comes as no surprise as the state of Israel has been claiming historical and religious rights over the Jordan Valley for a long time. However, the valley also has its military-strategic advantage. The plan was to annex the 3%, while they discuss the remaining 27% with Trump administration and wait for their agreement in the matter. Netanyahu has led the campaign of Israeli settlement and annexation of the valley to remove any doubt as to their fate, something which receives strong support from his political base. One of the reasons Netanyahu was elected to office was due to his promise of the annexation process.
Israle and Coloniaism
Israel has colonized Palestine in various stages and the international community has treated it as if it were a law-abiding sovereign state and not a colonizing power.
Although Israel is not the only expansionist state, History is full of examples. Imperialist states are however always met with resistance but the case does not seem to be applied to Israel.
Under normal circumstances, an annexation would have faced strong criticism from the international community but now after Trump's Peace Plan, there seems to be a radical shift. Speculations suggest that Netanyahu wants to Annex the valley before the American elections as he fears if Joe Biden is elected it would lead to changes in the US position on the annexation.
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