Europe will not stand idly by if Israel moves forward with its plan to annex parts of the Palestinian territory, Spain’s foreign minister said on Tuesday.
“The conversation that we, Spain, are having within the European Union, is that in the case that this unilateral annexation goes ahead -- which we hope is not the case -- there would have to be a European response,” Gonzalez Laya said at a news conference in Madrid alongside her Swedish counterpart Ann Linde.
Linde echoed Gonzalez’s statements, adding that Israel’s plans to annex the Palestinian territory would “violate international law”.
“Obviously this would affect the relationship between the EU and Israel,” she added.
Gonzalez said that Spain supports the “two-state solution” to the conflict and said “the only way to overcome the conflict between Israel and Palestine is through dialogue.”
Encouraged by US President Donald Trump’s so-called “Deal of the Century,” Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu last month announced his government would formally annex the Jordan Valley and all settlement blocs in the West Bank in July.
On Tuesday, the foreign ministers of Germany, France, Jordan, and Egypt also voiced strong opposition to these plans.
The West Bank, including East Jerusalem, is viewed as an occupied territory under international law, thus making all Jewish settlements there -- as well as the planned annexation -- illegal.
Palestinian officials have threatened to abolish bilateral agreements with Israel if it goes ahead with the annexation, which will further undermine the two-state solution.
The majority of the international community, including the European Union members, do not recognize Israel’s sovereignty over territories that it has occupied since 1967.