Italian MEP cancels visit to Israeli-occupied territories after Knesset votes to annex West Bank

An Italian Member of the European Parliament has declared that she will not be part of the European Parliament delegation to the Israeli-occupied territories next week, citing the Knesset’s vote to annex the occupied West Bank.

“I have decided not to participate in a mission by the European Parliament delegation to Israel at the invitation of the Knesset scheduled for next week,” Lucia Annunziata said, according to the Italian news agency ANSA.

She clarified her decision to turn down the Knesset’s invitation by stating that the recent passage of the law for the annexation of the West Bank, coupled with the relentless and indiscriminate attacks on the UN, “illustrate that the Israeli Parliament is not prepared to engage in discussions about peace.”

The legislator stated that her choice “was made in consultation with the Democratic Party at the national level.”

On Tuesday, lawmakers in the 120-seat Knesset voted 25-24 to advance two bills, one to annex the occupied West Bank and another to annex the Ma’ale Adumim settlement built on Palestinian land east of al-Quds.

The votes drew swift condemnation from the Hamas resistance movement, the Palestinian Foreign Ministry, and Jordan, among others.

Hamas said in a statement that the bills reflected “the ugly face of the colonial occupation.”

“We affirm that the occupation’s frantic attempts to annex West Bank lands are invalid and illegitimate,” the group said.

In a statement, the Palestinian Foreign Ministry condemned the vote, saying it “strongly rejects the Knesset’s attempts to annex Palestinian land.”

“The occupied Palestinian territories in the West Bank, including al-Quds, and the Gaza Strip, constitute a single geographic unit over which Israel has no sovereignty,” it said.

The West Bank has been under Israeli military occupation since 1967.

Illegal West Bank annexation bills expose Israel’s ‘colonial’ nature: Hamas

Hamas condemns the Israeli parliament’s initial nod to annex the occupied West Bank, saying the move reflects the Tel Aviv regime’s colonization of Palestinian land.

As of the end of 2024, approximately 770,000 illegal Israeli settlers lived in the West Bank, across 180 settlements and 256 outposts – including 138 classified as agricultural or pastoral, according to Palestinian reports.

Since October 2023, after the Israeli regime launched its genocidal war on Gaza, the regime’s military has intensified daily raids and mass arrests across the West Bank, notably in the northern cities, where Israeli bulldozers have razed entire residential areas, expelling at least 40,000 people.

Israeli data show settlers staged 414 attacks against the Palestinians in the West Bank in the first half of 2025, up 30% from 2024.

Over 1,000 Palestinians have been killed and more than 7,000 injured in the West Bank by Israeli forces and settlers since October 2023.

In July 2024, the International Court of Justice (ICJ) declared Israel’s occupation of the Palestinian territory illegal and called for the evacuation of all settlements in the West Bank and East al-Quds.

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