Israel’s Knesset lawmakers on Wednesday voted 71-13 in favor of a non-binding motion proposing to annex the West Bank.
“The land of Israel belongs to the people of Israel,” Knesset Speaker Amir Ohana said after the vote, adding that “Jews cannot be the occupiers” of what he called their ancestral homeland.
The resolution was put forward by several right-wing parliamentarians, who are calling for the annexation of the Judea, Samaria and the Jordan Valley areas by the State of Israel.
“We are the first original indigenous people on this piece of land, Jews cannot be the occupiers in a region which for 3,000 years was called ‘Judea,'” he said.
The Knesset last year approved a similar motion opposing the creation of a Palestinian state. The resolution passed 68-9.
