US Vice President Vance decries ‘political stunt’, says Trump would not back annexation of occupied West Bank.
US Vice President JD Vance said President Donald Trump would oppose Israeli annexation of the occupied West Bank, and it would not happen, suggesting a move by Israeli lawmakers towards that end looked like a “stupid political stunt”.
A bill applying Israeli law to the West Bank, a move tantamount to annexation of a territory that Palestinian leaders seek for part of a future independent state, won preliminary approval from Israeli lawmakers on Wednesday.
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Asked by reporters about the vote, Vance said on Thursday, “If it was a political stunt, it is a very stupid one, and I personally take some insult to it.”
Vance spoke after US Secretary of State Marco Rubio warned that steps towards annexing the territory, which Israel captured in the 1967 Middle East war, could endanger Trump’s plan to end Israel’s war on Gaza, which has yielded a shaky ceasefire so far, with Israel violating the truce repeatedly.
“The West Bank is not going to be annexed by Israel. The policy of President Trump is that the West Bank will not be annexed. This will always be our policy,” Vance said at the end of a two-day visit to Israel.
The vote was sponsored by Avi Maoz, the leader of the far-right Noam party, who, until recently, was in the governing right-wing coalition, and backed by ultranationalists National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir and Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich. The reading passed by a vote of 25-24 out of 120 lawmakers.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office later said that the vote was a “deliberate political provocation” that aimed to sow division during Vance’s visit.
Netanyahu’s far-right Likud party said it did not vote for the bill, adding that without its support, attempts to legislate the annexation of the West Bank were “unlikely to go anywhere”.
However, observers say de facto annexation is slowly taking place across the West Bank as Israel continues to expand illegal settlements on Palestinian land.
More than 700,000 Israelis live in settlements in the West Bank and occupied East Jerusalem.
All of Israel’s settlements are illegal under international law. The UN’s top court, the International Court of Justice, in 2024 said that Israel’s occupation of Palestinian territories, including the West Bank, and its settlements there are illegal, and should be withdrawn as soon as possible.
Settlers have also been emboldened by far-right officials to carry out attacks against Palestinians, their lands, and properties. Often armed, and backed by Israeli soldiers, settlers storm Palestinian villages, uproot olive trees, burn homes and vehicles, and assault residents with near-total impunity.
Rights groups say the Israeli army rarely intervenes to stop settler violence, and in many cases, actively shields or assists those carrying out the attacks.
More than 1,000 Palestinians have been killed by Israeli forces or settlers in the West Bank since Israel began its assault on Gaza on October 7, 2023, according to the UN. Thousands of Palestinians were forcibly displaced due to Israeli settler attacks, movement restrictions and home demolitions.
According to the UN, the first half of 2025 has seen 757 settler attacks causing casualties or property damage – a 13 percent increase compared with the same period last year.
Israeli forces have also intensified violent incursions on Palestinian towns and villages, while also arresting thousands of Palestinians.
Most notably, Israel attacked the refugee camps in Jenin, Tulkarem, Nur Shams, Far’a and Nablus, generating mass displacement that was unprecedented.
The US has long been Israel’s most powerful and staunch ally, and the Trump administration is particularly close to Israel, with considerable sway over its leadership.
Netanyahu has repeatedly ruled out Palestinian statehood. His cabinet has considered the idea of annexation as a response to major Western allies recently recognising a Palestinian state to put pressure on Israel to stop its devastating war in Gaza, but appeared to shelve it after Trump objected last month.
Senior White House officials and Trump’s son-in-law Jared Kushner have been visiting Israel seeking to bolster the 13-day-old truce between Israel and Hamas after two years of war. Israeli attacks on the blockaded enclave have killed more than 68,000 Palestinians since October 2023, destroyed large swaths of land, and displaced most of the Strip’s 2.1 million residents.
Rubio arrived in Israel on Thursday on a visit to support the implementation of Trump’s 20-point Gaza plan, the US Department of State said. The plan envisages eventual reconstruction and stable governance in the enclave, along with possible steps towards Palestinian statehood.
Saudi Arabia, Indonesia, Turkiye and 13 other Muslim-majority nations condemned Wednesday’s vote, as did the key multilateral organisations that represent Arab states and Muslim nations.
