Australia joins countries condemning Israel's takeover of West Bank | ABC NEWS

Ajouté : 2026-05-26

[00:00:00]Israel has accelerated its takeover of the occupied West Bank through increased settler violence, land seizures, and new laws, steadily transforming its 60-year military occupation of Palestinian lands into annexation. Australia has joined eight other nations in condemning these actions as serious breaches of international law, saying they undermine stability in the West Bank and the prospects for a two-state solution.

[00:00:25]Israel's moves in the West Bank come alongside continuing strikes in Gaza and Lebanon, and amid reports that Benjamin Netanyahu has lost influence over Donald Trump on a potential deal with Iran to end the war.

[00:00:37]Commentators in Israel see the government's actions as attempts to maximize control before the US withdraws from the conflict. Beyond well-documented settler violence, Israel has been transferring authority in the West Bank from its military government, in place since the 1967 war, to civilian Israeli control. That effectively means annexation, a state of some of its far-right ministers. Israel is also withholding funds from the Palestinian Authority and strangling its banking system. Taxes collected by Israel on the authority's behalf are not being forwarded, depriving it of up to 70% of the revenue needed for government services. Palestinians are also restricted in how much cash can be converted into electronic funds, further crippling an economy already cut off from Israeli labor markets. And expanding laws covering areas like archaeological sites are being used to create large tracts of privately held Palestinian land.

[00:01:34]The nations signing the new statement, including the UK, France, and Germany, face an increasingly uncomfortable reality. Having finally recognized Palestinian statehood, they are watching Israel make that statehood physically impossible.

[00:02:09]>> Mhm.