Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu continues to reject the claim by UAE and US officials that in exchange for the normalization deal with Abu Dhabi, Israel has taken West Bank annexation plans off the table.
“It’s not as if someone gave me a choice and told me to pick either sovereignty or normalization,” Netanyahu tells Army Radio.
“Just as nobody believed I would bring a peace agreement — I will also bring the sovereignty [declaration in parts of the West Bank],” he adds.
Netanyahu has insisted that annexation has only been frozen, despite both the UAE and White House adviser Jared Kushner saying the move is now off the table.
Finance Minister Israel Katz holds a press conference at the Finance Ministry in Jerusalem on July 1, 2020. (Olivier Fitoussi/Flash90)
Earlier today, Finance Minister Israel Katz of the ruling Likud party took the denial further, saying that annexation had already been postponed, without any connection to the UAE deal.
The UAE “just needed an alibi to explain the relations with Israel,” Katz told the Kan public broadcaster this morning.
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