Settlers Hail “Historic Opportunity” following Report that Trump Won’t Oppose Annexation of Settlements

Settler leaders and right-wing parties hailed on Sunday, May 12, a TV report that said the Trump administration’s “Deal of the Century” will provide for all settlements in the occupied Palestinian territories to remain under Israeli rule, and that the administration will not oppose the extension of Israeli law to all settlements. Trump’s plan will recognize that all those Israeli-settled areas “will remain in Israeli hands under a permanent accord,” the Channel 12 report said.

To that end, the report said, “The Americans will not oppose Israeli steps relating to the settlements.” Specifically, while the US will not explicitly back the formal “extension of Israeli sovereignty” to the settlements, i.e., their “annexation,” the report said, it will not object to the “extension of Israeli law” to the settlements.

“I call on the prime minister to immediately announce, following the establishment of a government, that he will extend Israeli law to all the Jewish settlements as a basis for any offer that may come,” said Har Hebron Regional Council Chairman Yohai Damari following the report on Channel 12.

“We have to take advantage of this window of opportunity during the Trump administration in the wake of the transfer of the embassy to Jerusalem and the recognition of [Israel’s sovereignty over] the Golan Heights. Now it is time for sovereignty in Judea and Samaria,” he said, referring to the occupied West Bank.

While right-wing groups welcomed the report, Hadash and the Communist Party of Israel warned it would lead to more bloodshed. “This pact of extremists between Netanyahu and Trump will set the whole region alight,” said Hadash leader MK Ayman Odeh, adding that only a two-state solution could end the conflict. “They simply don’t want peace,” he said.

Related: Palestinian FM: US is Proposing a Plan of Surrender, Not a Peace Deal