The Israeli occupation of #WestBank began on 7 June 1967 during the Six-Day War when #Israel took over the West Bank, including East #Jerusalem, and continues to the present day.
The West Bank is a chunk of land located – as the name suggests – on the west bank of the River #Jordan and bounded by Israel to the north, west, and south. It is home to more than 2.1 to 3 million #Palestinian#Arabs who live under both limited self-rule and Israeli military rule. Some 430,000 Israeli #Jews also live in 132 settlements and 124 smaller outposts built under occupation. A vast majority of the international community deem these settlements as illegal, a position that was disputed by the previous #American administration under #Donald Trump. The term #annexation is used to describe the #occupation of the West Bank by Israel, a kind of perforce extension of #sovereignty over disputed lands forbidden by international #law.
Israel claims #historical and #religious#rights over the West Bank as the #ancestral lands of the #Jewish people and cites threats to its national security as reasons for continuing the occupation. In 2020, Israel decided to fortify its status by officially “annexing” the territories that have been occupied since 1967. Annexation would make the settlements in the West Bank a permanent part of Israel removing all obstacles to further extension of the occupation. The disputed plan – members of parliament in Israel opposed the decision – has been held in suspension at present. International jurist William Schabas has filed a request with the International #Criminal#Court asking that it investigate the architects of the annexation plan including #DonaldTrump, #BenjaminNetanyahu, #MikePompeo, and #JaredKushner. Home invasions by the Israeli military and severe abuse of human rights of the Palestinians living in occupied West Bank have been widely reported.