The plan to annex the Palestinian Jordan Valley and the northern Dead Sea, announced by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, has announced its intention to implement it once his next government is formed The elections are the tip of the iceberg from a broader annexation plan encompassing the settlement blocs and all settlements, including outposts, with an area that, according to the NDO estimates, covers 75% of the targeted area and is classified by the Interim Agreement between the Palestinians and the Occupation as Area C. Full form of the occupation authorities.
Netanyahu, in a demonstration and provocation just days before going to the polls to elect the Knesset, announced at a press conference last week his intention to impose Israeli sovereignty over the Palestinian Jordan Valley and the northern Dead Sea, which covers 22% of Area C, and immediately after the formation of the Knesset. His next government, if he wins the elections, asserted that in recent months he has made political efforts to create the conditions for such a step, provided that this is the first step on the road to annexing all settlements.
Netanyahu had intended to declare the imposition of his sovereignty over the Jordan Valley and the northern Dead Sea in his speech immediately, but he was forced to change the declaration and turned it to declare his intention to impose sovereignty in the event of his re-election to the premiership, which made him vulnerable to attack from various camps in Israel, which was considered His statement is part of his campaign.
The map presented by Benjamin Netanyahu at a press conference in which he announced his intention to annex the Jordan Valley, shows that the area intended to annex a significant proportion of the West Bank.
In the details of the annexation plan for the Jordan Valley and northern Dead Sea areas, Highway 80 (Alon Road) appears as a border area. The area of ​​the targeted area of ​​annexation is 1,236,278 hectares, equal to 22.3% of the area of ​​the West Bank, on which 30 settlements in addition to 23 outposts inhabited by (12.778) settlers according to the Israeli Central Bureau of Statistics 2017, except for the outposts that will be annexed and the 18 illegal Seven of them were established in November 2016 after the election of US President Trump, while the Palestinians in the territories to be annexed or besieged in Area A and B are planned to remain under the control of the Palestinian Authority with access to it, comprising 15 communities with 44,175 Palestinians. It includes 48 cattle herding communities with 8775 Palestinians according to the census Palestinian Xie, and extends over an area of ​​250,000 dunums of Palestinian territories.
The report, which covers the period (7-13 September), that the coalition of right-wing parties led by Ayelet Shaked, in his competition for the votes of voters, realized the objectives of the maneuver carried out by Benjamin Netanyahu, and asked him to pass a decision in the Israeli occupation government to annex the Jordan Valley immediately, Without the need to pass legislation from the Knesset, just as it did on the issue of Jerusalem, he vowed to vote immediately in favor of the resolution so that everyone would realize that it was not a political maneuver aimed at getting more votes.
Reactions to Netanyahu´s plan to declare the annexation of the Palestinian Jordan Valley and the northern Dead Sea to Israel were angry at the local, regional and international levels. President Mahmoud Abbas declared that all agreements signed with the Israeli side and the resulting obligations would be terminated if the Israeli side implemented the imposition of Israeli sovereignty over the Jordan Valley, the northern Dead Sea or any part of the occupied Palestinian territory in 1967.
He called on the PNC to reconsider Israel´s membership in the UN General Assembly, given its non-compliance with its resolutions. A Palestinian national consensus was achieved in rejecting the American Century deal and refusing to participate in the Manama conference in Bahrain at the end of last June.
At the Arab level, the Arab foreign ministers, at the end of their emergency meeting held in the Egyptian capital Cairo, considered this declaration as a serious development and a new Israeli aggression in flagrant violation of international law, the Charter of the United Nations and the relevant resolutions of international legitimacy, including Security Council resolutions 242 and 338. The chances of making any progress in the peace process and undermining its full foundations.
UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres warned that Israel would not annex parts of the West Bank to its sovereignty, stressing that such a move would destroy the peace process. The Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in the Palestinian territories occupied since 1967, Michael Link, Israel annexing the Jordan Valley is illegal and threatens the chances of a two-state solution.
