The 1 July date set by Israel’s hard-right government to launch its annexation of occupied Palestinian territories passed with what Palestinian journalist Amjad Iraqi, writing in +972 Mag., called “very little fanfare.”
Iraqi wrote: “Disputes and unpreparedness within the Israeli government and the settler movement, along with growing international criticism in recent weeks, appear to have stalled the annexation process.”
Speaking in a webinar, Iraqi added that debates within the government may also have contributed to limiting the Israeli state’s ability to act. “There are disputes between Netanyahu and Benny Gantz, the Alternate Prime Minister, as well as between other members of their parties. These are not so much about whether annexation should take place, but how to go forward with it, how it should be implemented, how far does it go.”
Discord from the settler movement may also have been a factor, with some settler leaders insisting Netanyahu’s annexation plans did not go far enough, and that even the pseudo-sovereignty granted to the Palestinians under the Trump administration’s so-called “Deal of the Century” moved too far towards Palestinian statehood.
Demonstrations have continued across Israel, with the left-wing Arab-Jewish social movement Standing Together prominent in organising and mobilising for several. Within Palestinian politics, the secular-nationalist Fatah and the Islamist Hamas, Palestine’s two main parties and historic rivals who have often engaged in armed conflict against each other, held a joint news conference on 2 July, committing to working together to oppose annexation. Addressing the conference, Fatah official Jibril Rajud reaffirmed the Palestine Liberation Organisation position of fighting for an independent Palestinian state alongside Israel, with East Jerusalem as its capital. In advance of 1 July, the Palestinian leadership had threatened to downgrade its security cooperation with Israel, a promise which Amjad Iraqi says “it seems to have fulfilled.”.
The delay to Netanyahu’s plans must be seized by anti-occupation campaigners in Palestine, Israel, and internationally, to continue building domestic and international pressure on the Israeli state to abandon its policy. More here.
