Palestinian Hold Massive Rally against Annexation
The demonstrators waved Palestine flags and raised banners, denouncing the planned annexation and stressing that the “West Bank and Jordan Valley are Palestinian land.”
Meanwhile, the Palestinian Hamas resistance movement has urged Belgium to implement a recently approved resolution, which calls for denouncing Israel’s annexation scheme and adopting punitive measures if the regime goes ahead with its much-condemned plan.
The Belgian parliament on Friday passed with an overwhelming majority a resolution calling on the government to take action to bar the Israeli regime from unilaterally annexing large parts of the occupied West Bank.
The Belgian legislators called on Brussels, the seat of the European Union (EU), to actively advocate for European-wide punitive measures against Tel Aviv if it went ahead with its highly-provocative scheme.
The motion urges the government of Prime Minister Sophie Wilmès “to take the initiative with third countries, at European and multilateral levels, to prevent the annexation [by] Israel of the Palestinian territories, or parts of them.”
In a press statement on Saturday, Hamas spokesman Hazem Qasem hailed the decision made by the Belgian parliament, calling on its counterparts across the world to follow suit and pressure their respective governments to adopt punitive measures against the Israeli regime, the Palestinian Information Center reported.
Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu has time and again announced that he would begin cabinet-level discussions for annexing more areas in the occupied West Bank on July 1, in accordance with US President Donald Trump's the so-called deal of the century.
Trump’s scheme, unveiled in January, largely gives in to Israel’s demands while creating a Palestinian state with limited control over its own security and borders, enshrining the occupied Jerusalem al-Quds as Israel’s “capital” and allowing the regime to annex settlements in the West Bank and the Jordan Valley.
Elsewhere in his remarks, the Hamas spokesman also expressed hope that the international community and its bodies could take effective measures to prevent Tel Aviv from carrying out its “colonial” plans.
The EU has already lambasted Israel for its annexation plan. On June 18, High Representative of the EU for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy Josep Borrell warned that the annexation would have "significant consequences" for bilateral ties between the bloc and Tel Aviv.
On Tuesday, some 1,080 lawmakers from 25 European countries warned that the annexation plans “will be fatal to the prospects of Israeli-Palestinian peace and will challenge the most basic norms guiding international relations.”
The United Nations, for its part, has denounced the annexation scheme. UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres has time and again called on the regime to “abandon its annexation plans.”
On Friday, Michael Lynk, the UN special rapporteur on the situation of human rights in the Palestinian territory said the European bloc should back up its warnings against the Israeli plans with “a decisive menu of counter-measures.”
Trump’s scheme further maintains that the future Palestinian state will consist of scattered lands linked together via bridges and tunnels. It will also be demilitarized, meaning it will be subject to Israeli control for security.
On May 19, Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, who heads the Palestinian Authority, declared the end of all agreements signed with Tel Aviv and Washington. He previously said that Trump’s scheme “belongs to the dustbin of history.”
