Smotrich: Israel must annex Jordan Valley in response to possible ICC probe

National Home chair Transportation Minister Bezalel Smotrich urges Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to approve Israeli annexation of the West Bank’s Jordan Valley in response to the International Criminal Court chief prosecutor readying a probe into alleged war crimes in the Palestinian territories.

“There is no doubt in my mind that it is time to take significant steps to bring to the government a decision on the Israeli sovereignty over the Jordan Valley, a decision that, above all, will make it clear to the Palestinian Authority, the [ICC] prosecutor and the court that the territories of historic Israel are an integral part of the sovereign State of Israel,” Smotrich says in a letter to Netanyahu denouncing the decision.

Yesterday Smotrich called on Netanyahu to give the Palestinian Authority a 48-hour ultimatum to pull its petition or see the Ramallah-based political authority “torn down.”

Smotrich slammed the ICC as “anti-Semitic” and said Netanyahu should have issued the ultimatum to the PA years ago when it filed the request to open the probe in 2015.

— Raoul Wootliff