Jimmy Carter speaks out against Israeli sovereignty plans, touts former accords

(JNS) Former U.S. President Jimmy Carter has criticized Israel’s plans to apply sovereignty to parts of Judea and Samaria, more commonly known as the West Bank.

“Israel’s planned annexation of up to 30 [percent] of the West Bank as early as today would violate international laws prohibiting the acquisition of territory by force and changing the status of occupied territories,” said Carter in a statement on Wednesday. “The planned move would violate the Oslo and Camp David accords, and jeopardize Israel’s peace treaties with Jordan and Egypt.”

“For decades, Jewish settlements in the West Bank have expanded, jeopardizing any possible establishment of a sovereign Palestinian state alongside Israel,” he said. “Formal annexation will signal the end of the internationally agreed-upon two-state framework for peace, and with it the possibility for a just solution to the conflict.”

Carter, 95, concluded, “The envisioned annexation would amount to a massive, illegal expropriation of Palestinian territory. Annexation must be stopped, and the Israelis and Palestinians should return to meaningful negotiations based on U.N. resolutions and previous bilateral agreements.”