Undeterred by the protests of the Palestinian people and the resolutions of the UN, Israel has been encroaching upon more and more Palestinian areas of the West Bank and has been laying claims on many historical sites. It has ignored even American objections in this regard.
According to the latest report Israel has been describing several places in West Bank as its 'national heritage'. It has named nine new sites in the West Bank which has triggered angry protests from the Palestinian people.
Israel has labeled some of the Muslim shrines as sacred to the Jews and thus laid claim to them. One case in point is that of the Ebrahimi Mosque. Israel first labeled it as sacred to the Jews and a heritage site back in 2010. That was objected to, besides Palestinians, by the United States also.
Recently, Palestinian protesters clashed with Israeli troops in Hebron on the same issue and Palestinian president Mahmoud Abbas warned Israel that it could spark a religious war. But that all fell on deaf ears in Israel because with the elections near at hand, the various Israeli parties are more prone to the pressures of the hard line religious-nationalist elements than to the rights of the Palestinians and the demands of the international community.
Other Israeli plans, according to a news agency report, include renovating the site of Tel Shilo where the Jewish tradition holds the Israeli tabernacle once stood, and building of a replica of the tomb of King Herod at the Herodion, a site near the town of Bethlehem. Israel has gone to the extent of allocating 107 million dollars to invest in about 300 such 'cultural sites' and other ventures including renovation of archaeological sites and building a museum.
Israel has also not responded to UN Secretary General Ban ki Moon's call to rescind its colonization plans in the strategic E1 area of West Bank. Israeli premier Netanyahu pledged recently to move ahead with construction of a new colony in the area which would deepen occupied east Jerusalem's separation from the West Bank.
Meanwhile, three rightwing parties of Israel have gone to the extent of talking about annexation of all or the major portion of the West Bank. What makes the matter more serious is that two of the parties are likely to be part of the government after the coming elections.
The idea of annexing the West Bank is being discussed seriously by other parties too, says a western news agency report. It said that Prime Minister Netanyahu's party candidates have been openly debating the issue before the electorates. One minister has been quoted as saying that 'we must begin to talk about it because it is going to be the order for the next government'. A Likud Party deputy said that 'our historic right to this region should be cemented by the application of Israeli law in Judea and Samaria (West Bank).'
As the elections are approaching more and more Israeli leaders have been talking of annexation of the West Bank. It is high time that the Arab and the Muslim countries take up the matter seriously and jointly raise the issue in the UN and other international forums before Israel makes the move to annex the West Bank.
