The Israeli Parliament approves the first of three votes on a bill seeking to fully annex the occupied West Bank.

The Israeli Parliament (the Knesset) approved this Wednesday, in a preliminary reading with 25 votes in favor and 24 against, a proposal to annex the occupied Palestinian territory of the West Bank.

"The bill to apply sovereignty to the territories of Judea and Samaria was approved in preliminary reading by a majority of 25 in favor and 24 against," the Knesset detailed on its X channel.

This first step precedes three more votes that will be necessary in the Knesset to convert this bill into law, which reads: "The State of Israel shall apply its laws and sovereignty to the settlement areas in Judea and Samaria, to establish the status of these areas as an inseparable part of the sovereign State of Israel."

MP Avio Maoz, leader of the Noam party, is the driving force behind this law. During the parliamentary session, he declared that "the Lord, blessed be He, gave the people of Israel the Land of Israel," referring to the "Greater Israel" that erases the Palestinian territories from the map.

This preliminary vote coincides with a visit to Israel by US Vice President JD Vance, who has overseen the Gaza ceasefire plan alongside Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and senior military officials.

"The time has come to apply full sovereignty over all the territories of Judea and Samaria (the West Bank), the heritage of our ancestors, and to promote peace agreements in exchange for peace with our neighbors from a position of strength," celebrated the Minister of Finance, the far-right settler, Bezalel Smotrich, on X.

National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir, also a far-right settler, was quick to express his enthusiasm for the proposal , writing on his X account: "The time for sovereignty has come now!"

In mid-September, both ministers demanded that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu annex the West Bank in response to the recognition of the Palestinian state by more than a dozen countries, including the United Kingdom, Canada, and Australia.

Palestine has no territorial continuity, and while the political wing of Hamas governed Gaza, the Palestinian National Authority (PNA), headed by Mahmoud Abbas, remains in power in the West Bank.

Although Israel has had both military and civilian control over most of this area (the so-called Area C, which accounts for 60% of the territory) since the Oslo Accords.

Furthermore, there are hundreds of Israeli military checkpoints throughout the West Bank, and a permit system that prevents Palestinians from freely moving between cities, prohibiting many from entering Jerusalem (among other cities).