British Prime Minister Boris Johnson said that the United Kingdom wouldn’t recognize any changes to the 1967 borders, exception for those agreed upon between the Palestinian and Israeli parties.
In an article published in the Israeli daily newspaper Yedioth Ahronoth on Wednesday, Johnson called on Israel not to proceed with its illegal plan to annex large swaths of the West Bank.
“I followed with great sadness the proposals for annexing Palestinian territory,” he wrote. “Annexation would represent a violation of international law.”
“I profoundly hope that annexation does not go ahead,” he said. “If it does, the UK will not recognize any changes to the 1967 lines, except those agreed between both parties.”
Johnson called on both sides to return to the negotiation table in order to achieve a lasting peace.
After it was declared that that Israeli parliament would vote on the annexation move on July 1, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu hinted at the postponement of the implementation of the illegal move.
Netanyahu has declared many times his willingness to annex the illegal colonial settlements besides to the Jordan Valley, a fertile strip of land running west along the Jordan River, which is home of some 65,000 Palestinians and makes up approximately 30 percent of the West Bank, upon the formation of the new coalition government.
The annexation of Palestinian territory occupied in 1967 is illegal under international law, and it would put much of the occupied West Bank under Israeli sovereignty, leaving only a few small pockets of densely populated Palestinian bantustans.
