{"id":2803,"date":"2020-07-01T13:49:35","date_gmt":"2020-07-01T18:49:35","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/combonimissionaries.org\/?p=2803"},"modified":"2021-01-26T13:17:45","modified_gmt":"2021-01-26T18:17:45","slug":"objections-grow-over-israels-plan-to-annex-parts-of-the-west-bank","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/combonimissionaries.org\/objections-grow-over-israels-plan-to-annex-parts-of-the-west-bank\/","title":{"rendered":"Objections Grow Over Israel&#8217;s Plan to Annex Parts of the West Bank"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><img loading=\"lazy\" class=\"wp-image-2807 alignleft\" src=\"https:\/\/combonimissionaries.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/07\/Israeli_West_Bank_barrier_West_Bank_Israel.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"290\" height=\"387\" srcset=\"https:\/\/combonimissionaries.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/07\/Israeli_West_Bank_barrier_West_Bank_Israel.jpg 512w, https:\/\/combonimissionaries.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/07\/Israeli_West_Bank_barrier_West_Bank_Israel-225x300.jpg 225w, https:\/\/combonimissionaries.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/07\/Israeli_West_Bank_barrier_West_Bank_Israel-200x267.jpg 200w, https:\/\/combonimissionaries.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/07\/Israeli_West_Bank_barrier_West_Bank_Israel-400x534.jpg 400w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 290px) 100vw, 290px\" \/><span style=\"color: #000000;\">WEST BANK \u2014 In recent months Israel&#8217;s <\/span><span style=\"color: #000000;\">Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has <\/span><span style=\"color: #000000;\">announced plans to annex parts of the <\/span><span style=\"color: #000000;\">occupied West Bank.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #000000;\">According to the <em><strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.bbc.com\/news\/world-middle-east-52756427\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">BBC<\/a><\/strong><\/em>, nearly three million <\/span><span style=\"color: #000000;\">Palestinian Arabs live in the West Bank <\/span><span style=\"color: #000000;\">under a combination of self-rule and <\/span><span style=\"color: #000000;\">Israeli military rule. It is also home to some <\/span><span style=\"color: #000000;\">430,000 Israeli Jews who live in 132 <\/span><span style=\"color: #000000;\">settlements built under Israeli <\/span><span style=\"color: #000000;\">occupation. <\/span><span style=\"color: #000000;\">Much of the international community <\/span><span style=\"color: #000000;\">considers these settlements illegal under <\/span><span style=\"color: #000000;\">international law.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #000000;\">When a state unilaterally proclaims <\/span><span style=\"color: #000000;\">sovereignty over another territory that is annexation, and it is forbidden by <\/span><span style=\"color: #000000;\">international law. If Israel moves forward with this annexation, there are <\/span><span style=\"color: #000000;\">fears that this will move peace even further out of reach between Israel and <\/span><span style=\"color: #000000;\">the Palestinians.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #000000;\">On May 7, 2020, Patriarchs and Heads of the Holy Land Churches issued a <\/span><span style=\"color: #000000;\">statement strongly opposed to this proposed annexation:<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #000000;\">&#8220;As a result of the stagnation of the Peace Process in the Middle East <\/span><span style=\"color: #000000;\">between the Israelis and Palestinians, an array of plans for Israel to <\/span><span style=\"color: #000000;\">unilaterally annex West Bank land, backed mainly by right-wing factions, <\/span><span style=\"color: #000000;\">raises serious and catastrophic questions about the feasibility of any <\/span><span style=\"color: #000000;\">peaceful agreement to end the decades\u2019 long conflict, one that <\/span><span style=\"color: #000000;\">continues to cost many innocent lives as part of a vicious cycle of human <\/span><span style=\"color: #000000;\">tragedy and injustice. <\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #000000;\">&#8220;The Council of Patriarchs and Heads of the Holy Land Churches views <\/span><span style=\"color: #000000;\">such unilateral annexation plans with the utmost concern and calls upon <\/span><span style=\"color: #000000;\">the State of Israel to refrain from such unilateral moves, which would bring <\/span><span style=\"color: #000000;\">about the loss of any remaining hope for the success of the peace <\/span><span style=\"color: #000000;\">process.&#8221;<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #000000;\">Read the rest of the statement <\/span><span style=\"color: #0000ff;\"><em><strong><a style=\"color: #0000ff;\" href=\"https:\/\/www.globalministries.org\/a_statement_by_the_patriarchs_and_heads_of_the_holy_land_churches_on_israeli_unilateral_annexation_plans\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">here<\/a><\/strong><\/em><\/span><span style=\"color: #000000;\">.<\/span><\/p>\n<p>Photo: Israeli West Bank Wall. Photo courtesy of Wikimedia Commons.<\/p>\n<span class=\"et_bloom_bottom_trigger\"><\/span>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>WEST BANK \u2014 In recent months Israel&#8217;s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has announced plans to annex parts of the occupied West Bank. According to the BBC, nearly three million Palestinian [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":2807,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"give_campaign_id":0,"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[137,28,1],"tags":[367,272,366],"class_list":["post-2803","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-justiceandpeace","category-latest-news","category-uncategorized","tag-israel","tag-justice-peace","tag-west-bank"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/combonimissionaries.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/07\/Israeli_West_Bank_barrier_West_Bank_Israel.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/combonimissionaries.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2803","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/combonimissionaries.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/combonimissionaries.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/combonimissionaries.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/combonimissionaries.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2803"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/combonimissionaries.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2803\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/combonimissionaries.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2807"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/combonimissionaries.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2803"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/combonimissionaries.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2803"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/combonimissionaries.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2803"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}