The Palestinian government warns Israel against plans to annex the Jordan Valley, recalling that the move would amount to a war crime, official spokesman Ibrahim Melhem said on Thursday in the wake of the Jewish state's sovereignty claims to Area C of the West Bank
GAZA CITY (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 09th January, 2020) The Palestinian government warns Israel against plans to annex the Jordan Valley, recalling that the move would amount to a war crime, official spokesman Ibrahim Melhem said on Thursday in the wake of the Jewish state's sovereignty claims to Area C of the West Bank.
At a forum in Jerusalem on Wednesday, Israeli Defense Minister Naftali Bennett claimed that Area C belongs to Israel. Bennett, who is also the New Right party leader, added that he would include the demand to claim sovereignty to this area in a coalition government agreement in the March snap elections. He also announced the establishment of a special task force to boost the settlement activity in the area. Addressing the same conference dubbed "The Pompeo Doctrine" via a video link, US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo reiterated his November statement that the Washington no longer viewed Israeli settlements in the West Bank as illegal.
"The occupant's government is well aware that any move to annex land in the occupied West Bank is a war crime ... The statements by Netanyahu and Bennett about the annexation of Area C, including the Jordan Valley, reflect the actual continuation of the policy of annexation of Palestinian territories," Melhem told the Palestinian Authority news service WAFA.
In December, Bennett started pushing for a law to enable the registry of settlements in Area C with the Justice Ministry, though neither the international law nor national legislation recognize the area as the one belonging to Israel.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who is struggling to remain in power after two inconclusive elections, has repeatedly publicly promised to extend his country's sovereignty to the Jordan Valley, located in Area C.
The Oslo II Accord, signed in 1995, divided the West Bank into Areas A, B, C. The Area A is under Palestine's complete civil and military control. Area B is under Palestinian civil control but Israeli military control. Area C is under full Israeli civil and military control.
Area C accounts for over 60 percent of the West Bank, according to the United Nations, with some 150,000 Palestinians and over 350,000 Israeli settlement residents living there. The UN considers Israeli settlements in the occupied land illegal, saying that they are being built at the expense of Palestinian communities.
