Israel drawing up map for W Bank annexations

Israel has begun to draw up maps of land in the occupied West Bank that will be annexed in accordance with US President Donald Trump’s proposed peace plan, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on Saturday.

“We are already at the height of the process of mapping the area that, according to the Trump plan, will become part of the state of Israel. It won’t take too long,” Netanyahu said at an election campaign rally in the Maale Adumim settlement.

Netanyahu said the area would include all Israeli settlements and the Jordan Valley - territory Israel has kept under military occupation since its capture in the 1967 Middle East war but which Palestinians want in a future state.

Most countries consider Israeli settlements on land captured in war to be a violation of international law. Trump has changed US policy to withdraw such objections.

Trump’s plan envisages a two-state solution with Israel and a future Palestinian state living alongside each other, but it includes strict conditions that Palestinians reject.

The blueprint gives Israel much of what it has long sought, including US recognition of settlements and Israeli sovereignty over the Jordan Valley.

A redrawn, demilitarised Palestinian state would be subject to Israeli control over its security, and would receive tracts of desert in return for arable land settled by Israelis.

Right after Trump presented the plan on Jan. 28, Netanyahu said his government would begin extending Israeli sovereignty to the settlements and the Jordan Valley within days.