ISRAEL’s parliament has passed a resolution that overwhelmingly rejected the establishment of a Palestinian state, Israeli media reported.
The resolution passed in the Knesset with 68 votes in favour and just nine against it early on Thursday.
It said that a Palestinian state would pose “an existential danger to the State of Israel and its citizens, perpetuate the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and destabilize the region”.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s coalition with far-right parties co-sponsored the resolution. Opposition leader Yair Lapid’s centre-left party left the session to avoid supporting the statement, despite previously saying he favoured a two-state solution, the Times of Israel newspaper reported.
Mustafa Barghouti, the secretary-general of the Palestinian National Initiative, slammed the passing of the resolution.
“No Zionist party from both the government and the opposition voted against the resolution,” he wrote on X.
“This resolution represents a rejection of peace with Palestinians and an official declaration of the death of [the] Oslo agreement,” Barghouti posted.
The Oslo Accords, which were first signed between Palestinian and Israeli leaders in 1993, called for a viable and sovereign Palestinian state living side by side with an Israeli state.
But Israel has continued to adopt policies such as building illegal settlements on Palestinian lands across the occupied West Bank and a complete blockade of Gaza.
Palestinian Authority official Hussein al-Sheikh condemned the resolution on social media, saying the Knesset’s rejection “confirms the racism of the occupying state and its disregard for international law and international legitimacy, and its insistence on the approach and policy of perpetuating the occupation forever”.
Jordan’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs said the resolution’s approval was a “dangerous” violation of international law.
“Israel’s continued efforts to deny the Palestinians’ inalienable right to their independent and sovereign state along the lines of June 4, 1967, with occupied Jerusalem as its capital, does not bring security and peace in the region,” read a statement citing the ministry’s spokesperson Sufyan al-Qudah.
The Times of Israel quoted the resolution as saying: “It will only be a matter of a short time until Hamas takes over the Palestinian state and turns it into a radical Islamic terror base, working in coordination with the Iranian-led axis to eliminate the State of Israel.”