RIYADH: Saudi Arabia has led Arab and Islamic condemnation of an Israeli bill passed in the Knesset on Wednesday evening imposing sovereignty over the West Bank and the Jordan Valley to annex Palestinian territory occupied since the 1967 Middle East War.
The Kingdom, along with Bahrain, Egypt, Indonesia, Jordan, Nigeria, the State of Palestine, Qatar, Turkiye and the UAE, as well as the Arab League and the Organization of Islamic Cooperation, said Israel’s actions undermined efforts to achieve peace through the two-state solution and reflected an ongoing insistence on destruction and destabilization.
“Israel does not have sovereignty over the Occupied Palestinian Territory ... This unilateral move by Israel has no legal effect and cannot alter the legal status of the OPT, particularly East Jerusalem, which remains an integral part of this territory,” they stated.
Since the peace agreement between Israel and the Palestine Liberation Organization in 1993, Palestinians have aimed to establish an independent state in the occupied West Bank and Gaza Strip, with East Jerusalem as its capital. However, Israeli policies — such as expanding settlements, segregating towns in the West Bank with military checkpoints and the bombing and significant destruction of the Gaza Strip since late 2023 — have all obstructed the realization of Palestinian statehood aspirations.
