Israeli Foreign Minister Gideon Sa’ar described international efforts to recognize a Palestinian state as a “mistake” and warned that it could trigger an unspecified unilateral response from Israel. His comments came following reports that Israel plans to annex parts of the occupied West Bank.

Several countries, including France and the United Kingdom, have committed to recognizing a Palestinian state during the UN General Assembly later this month. Israel’s relations with France became strained after President Emmanuel Macron announced his country’s plans and co-hosted a conference with Saudi Arabia in July, calling for a two-state solution. The United Kingdom announced that it would recognize Palestine if Israel does not agree to a ceasefire in the Gaza conflict triggered by the October 2023 attack by the Palestinian group Hamas.

“Such recognition will destabilize the region” and complicate achieving peace, Sa’ar said at a joint press conference with his Danish counterpart Lars Løkke Rasmussen. “Countries like France and the United Kingdom, which pushed for recognition, have made a huge mistake,” he added. Rasmussen clarified that Denmark does not plan a similar move, emphasizing that it will never recognize a Palestinian state governed by Hamas or any other terrorist organization, and set conditions such as demilitarization, transparency, and democracy.

Sa’ar did not specify exactly what Israel’s reaction would be, but his remarks come after the approval of new settlement projects in the West Bank, occupied by Israel since 1967. One key project east of Jerusalem, known as E1, would divide the West Bank, and according to far-right Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich, “will bury the idea of a Palestinian state.”

Smotrich, who lives in a settlement, stated that Israel must annex parts of the West Bank to remove “the idea of dividing our small land and creating a terrorist state at its center once and for all.”

The West Bank is home to around three million Palestinians and about 500,000 Israelis living in settlements considered illegal under international law. Israel has annexed East Jerusalem and the Golan Heights, a strategic plateau captured from Syria during the 1967 Arab-Israeli war. Most countries do not recognize Israel’s sovereignty over these territories.

During the Gaza conflict, the West Bank has been shaken by a wave of violence, including settler attacks and Israeli military raids. |BGNES