Israel's Knesset votes down Beitar Illit annexation bill

Israeli parliament the Knesset voted against a bill to annex Beitar Illit, a large settlement in the West Bank. The proposal was defeated by a margin of 45 to eight in a vote on the motion on Wednesday.

The proposed bill sought to regulate the city’s status under Israeli law. It was presented by Yisrael Beiteinu party chairman, lawmaker Oded Forer, as part of a broader effort to advance sovereignty measures in the area.

Following the vote, he posted on X that the government “chose to vote against a basic step of Israeli sovereignty,” blaming ministers Bezalel Smotrich and Itamar Ben Gvir, and members of their faction for “opposing” the bill and claiming they were absent from the vote.

“Whoever speaks about sovereignty on every platform voted today against sovereignty in practice. The government has once again proven that its ideology ends when it clashes with petty politics,” Forer said.

Israeli officials told Euronews that the proposal was blocked by the governing coalition itself, despite the coalition's generally supportive stance on settlement expansion and right-leaning policies.

The vote took place in the Knesset while Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was in the US, as he was expected to meet again with US President Donald Trump at a New Year’s reception at Trump's Mar-a-Lago property.

In October, during the visit of US Vice President JD Vance, the Knesset voted on a similar West Bank annexation bill, which Netanyahu's office perceived as a "deliberate political provocation by the opposition" intended to incite conflict during a high-level visit from Washington.

Vance and US Secretary of State Marco Rubio criticised the October vote and a move by the Knesset towards annexation of the occupied West Bank.

Vance called it an "insult" that ran counter to the Trump administration's policies, adding that if the Knesset's vote was a "political stunt, then it is a very stupid political stunt."