Overview
- At a House Foreign Affairs subcommittee session titled “Understanding Judea and Samaria,” members and witnesses debated sovereignty, annexation, and the terminology used for the West Bank.
- Eugene Kontorovich argued that under the uti possidetis juris principle, Israel holds a strong sovereign claim based on Mandatory Palestine’s boundaries.
- Democrats and expert Jon Alterman warned that annexation could disenfranchise Palestinians and undercut U.S. opposition to Russia’s land grabs in Ukraine.
- Participants said neither full annexation nor a conventional two-state solution is currently feasible, as alternatives such as limited autonomy models were floated.
- Proceedings turned testy with a shouting match between Reps. Mike Lawler and Brad Sherman, and Code Pink activists were removed after confronting Israeli settlement leaders.