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The United Arab Emirates warned Wednesday that Israeli moves to annex parts of the occupied West Bank would cross a “red line” and threaten the Abraham Accords, one of the few normalization deals between Israel and an Arab country.
Lana Nusseibeh, the UAE foreign ministry’s assistant minister for political affairs, urged Israel to halt annexation plans, saying they would “severely undermine” the 2020 accords that established ties between Abu Dhabi and Tel Aviv.
“From the very beginning, we viewed the Accords as a way to enable our continued support for the Palestinian people and their legitimate aspiration for an independent state,” Nusseibeh said in a statement sent to Agence France-Presse (AFP).
“The proposal to annex parts of the West Bank, reportedly under discussion in the Israeli government, is part of an effort that would, in the words of an Israeli minister, ‘bury the idea of a Palestinian state,’” she added.
“Annexation in the West Bank would constitute a red line for the UAE. It would severely undermine the vision and spirit of (the) Accords, end the pursuit of regional integration and would alter the widely shared consensus on what the trajectory of this conflict should be—two states living side by side in peace, prosperity and security.”
Israeli Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich, leader of the far-right Religious Zionism Party, confirmed the government’s annexation drive at a Jerusalem press conference.
“Israeli sovereignty will be applied to 82% of the territory,” Smotrich said. “It is time to apply Israeli sovereignty in Judea and Samaria (West Bank) and remove once and for all the idea of dividing our small land.”
He said the Palestinians’ affairs would initially be run by the Palestinian Authority, later replaced by “regional civilian management alternatives.”
Smotrich emphasized that the guiding principle of annexation was “the maximum land with the minimum Arab population.”
“There will never, and can never be, a Palestinian state in our land,” he claimed.
“If the Palestinian Authority dares to rise up and try to harm us, we will destroy them just as we do to Hamas.”
Smotrich called the annexation push “a preventative step” against the wave of countries moving to recognize Palestinian statehood.
Several countries—including Belgium, France, the U.K., Canada, and Australia—have announced plans to recognize Palestine during the upcoming U.N. General Assembly session, set for Sept. 8–23. They would join 147 nations that already recognize Palestinian statehood.
Smotrich urged Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu “to make a historic decision to apply Israeli sovereignty to all open areas in Judea and Samaria (West Bank).”
On Aug. 20, Israel approved the controversial E1 settlement project, which would split the West Bank in two—cutting off Ramallah and Nablus in the north from Bethlehem and Hebron in the south, while isolating East Jerusalem.
The international community, including the U.N., considers Israeli settlements illegal under international law.
The U.N. has repeatedly warned that continued expansion threatens the viability of a two-state solution, seen as central to resolving the decades-long conflict.
In an advisory opinion last July, the International Court of Justice (ICJ) declared Israel’s occupation of Palestinian territory illegal and called for the evacuation of all settlements in the West Bank and East Jerusalem.
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