Netanyahu’s map excluding West Bank shows ‘colonial, racist agendas’ of Israel’s right-wing government: Palestine

By Qais Abu Samra

RAMALLAH, Palestine (AA) – Palestine strongly denounced Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu for using a map that erased the West Bank.

“Netanyahu's map reveals the truth of the colonial and racist agendas of the extremist right-wing government,” the Palestinian Foreign Ministry said in a statement.

The Israeli premier appeared standing in front of a wall-sized digital map on Monday that obliterated the West Bank. Palestinians decried the move as an explicit annexation of the occupied territory by Tel Aviv.

"Netanyahu continues and repeatedly uses a map that includes the West Bank as part of the occupation state, in clear and explicit recognition of this racist colonial crime, and disregard of international legitimacy and its resolutions, international will for peace, and the signed agreements,” the ministry said.

“This behavior is a blatant challenge to international efforts to stop the war of extermination and displacement and revive the peace process based on the two-state solution,” it added.

The Foreign Ministry stressed that Netanyahu’s use of the map that erased the West Bank reflects “his racist, expansionist colonial policy being practiced on the ground in full view of the world.”

"We view with great concern this flagrant violation of international law, especially since the occupation is committing the most heinous crimes against our people, in a practical embodiment of an attempt to deny the Palestinian existence and their just and legitimate national rights,” it added.

Tension has been running high across the occupied West Bank amid a brutal Israeli offensive on the Gaza Strip, which has killed nearly 40,800 people, mostly women and children, since Oct. 7 last year.

At least 670 people have since been killed and over 5,600 others injured by Israeli fire in the occupied territory, according to Palestinian figures.

In a landmark opinion on July 19, the International Court of Justice declared Israel's decades-long occupation of Palestinian land unlawful and demanded the evacuation of all settlements in the West Bank and East Jerusalem.

*Writing by Ahmed Asmar