Vance rebukes Israel on 'very stupid' vote to annex West Bank

Vice President JD Vance said Thursday that a vote by Israeli lawmakers to annex the West Bank was a "very stupid political stunt."

A bill applying Israeli law to the occupied West Bank, which effectively would annex the territory for Israel, passed a vote Wednesday in Israel’s parliament as Vance was visiting the country, according to Reuters. It was the first of four votes needed for the proposal to become law. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's Likud Party did not back the legislation, which was pushed by lawmakers outside his ruling coalition, the news agency added.

"That was weird. I was sort of confused by that," Vance told reporters on Thursday when asked about the vote. "Now I actually asked somebody about it, and they told me that it was a symbolic vote, some symbolic vote to recognize or a symbolic vote to annex the West Bank. I mean, what I would say to that is when I asked about it, somebody told me it was a political stunt, that it had no practical significance, it was purely symbolic."

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