Palestinian officials hope UAE can prevent West Bank annexation

The issue of annexation has popped up this week ahead of the UN General Assembly meeting in New York, where a number of countries are expected to push for support for a Palestinian state. Meanwhile, some Israeli politicians continue to discuss how to apply Israeli “sovereignty” to the West Bank, which could be seen as a form of annexation.

It is an issue that appears to pop up every few years.

However, it was never clear whether Israel was ever serious about annexation. It’s plausible that the issue is raised every few years to create a kind of crisis that can then be “resolved.”

Nevertheless, countries such as the UAE take it seriously. The messaging this week is that annexation is a “red line” in relations.

The Palestinian Authority is counting on the UAE to help prevent Israel from moving forward with legal changes that might change how Israel administers the West Bank.

Ahmed Majdalani, a Palestinian politician, university professor, and researcher who is a senior member of the PLO Executive Committee, spoke to AlAin media about how Palestinians are welcoming the UAE’s tough position.

“Majdalani stressed that the UAE’s warning to Israel constitutes a ‘clear and strong message’ that carries significant timing, given escalating Israeli measures aimed at imposing sovereignty and annexation on the West Bank,” the report said.

The Palestinian official praised the UAE’s stance and timing.

“The UAE’s link between normalization and its continuation, on the one hand, and Israeli measures and annexation plans, on the other, carries a fundamental message that we greatly appreciate.” This is important because after the Abraham Accords, some people argued that the Palestinian issue no longer mattered in terms of Israel’s strategic outlook. In essence, the theory was that now Israel was integrating into the region, the Palestinians could be ignored.

After October 7, the messaging has changed. Israel is involved in a long war in Gaza and it is focused primarily on Palestinian issues to the detriment of other broader strategies and geopolitics.

The official added that the PLO hopes that the Arab League may also affirm its backing of the UAE statements. This unified Arab stance would increase pressure on Israel.

Reports indicate that Egypt and Saudi Arabia are also concerned.

The Arab position “will undoubtedly exert strong pressure on the American position to curb Netanyahu’s ambitions to move further toward unilateral measures in the West Bank,” the Palestinian official said, according to the interview with AlAin.

The PLO official believes Israel is pushing forward with more talk of annexation in light of the upcoming UN meeting. In essence, one could see this as similar to the annexation crisis of 2020 when the concept was trotted out, only to be “solved” after.

Israel could once again trade lack of annexation for some kind of other concession.

“Israel aims to lure the Palestinians into a major clash that will lead to the failure of the international conference, or seek to impose a new demographic and geopolitical reality that will empty international recognition of the state of Palestine of any substance,” Majdalani said.

Clearly, he thinks this is a real agenda that could manifest itself.

Majdalani appears to believe that Israel would move forward with annexation in order to stymie a drive for a Palestinian state.

“Achieving recognition of the state of Palestine during the international conference is the major and most important political gain we are working towards,” he said.