Vance calls Israeli West Bank annexation vote ‘very stupid political stunt’

Vice President J.D. Vance said Thursday that Israeli lawmakers’ vote to annex the West Bank was “a very stupid political stunt.”

A bill that would apply Israeli law to the occupied West Bank and effectively annex the region to Israel was voted on in the Israeli parliament on Wednesday during Vance’s visit to the country, Reuters reported. This was the first of four votes needed for the proposal to become law. The news agency added that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s Likud Party did not support the legislation put forward by lawmakers outside the ruling coalition.

“It was very strange. It kind of surprised me,” Vance told reporters Thursday when asked about the vote. “Now I asked someone about this and they told me it was a symbolic vote, a symbolic vote to recognize the West Bank or a symbolic vote to annex. So, when I asked about that, someone told me it was a political stunt, it had no practical significance, it was purely symbolic.”

“So look, if this was a political demonstration, it was a very stupid political demonstration, and I personally take that as an insult. The West Bank will not be annexed by Israel,” Vance added. “The Trump administration’s policy is that the West Bank should not be annexed by Israel. That will continue to be our policy. And if people want to get symbolic votes, they can do that, but we were certainly not happy with that.”

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Following Vance’s comments, a senior member of Netanyahu’s Likud Party announced on Thursday that the Israeli prime minister had told him not to make proposals regarding the annexation of the West Bank, according to Israeli media.

“The Knesset’s annexation vote was a deliberate political provocation by the opposition to create discord during Vice President JD Vance’s visit to Israel. The two bills were supported by opposition members of the Knesset,” Netanyahu’s office wrote to X.

“The Likud party and the religious parties (the main members of the coalition) did not vote on these bills, except for a disgruntled Likud member who was recently fired from his position as chairman of the Knesset committee. Without Likud’s support, these bills are unlikely to go anywhere,” the statement added.

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The West Bank city of Ramallah is seen on October 9, 2025. (Zain Jaafar/AFP via Getty Images)

According to the Associated Press, the possible annexation of the West Bank has been raised in Israel in response to a number of countries taking action to recognize the Palestinian state.

Israel captured the West Bank, East Jerusalem and the Gaza Strip in the 1967 Middle East war. Palestinians want all three regions to form their future state. They and much of the international community say annexation would virtually eliminate any remaining possibility of a two-state solution, the AP reported.

More than half a million Jewish settlers currently live in some 130 settlements in the West Bank.

Vice President J.D. Vance met with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu at the Prime Minister’s Office in Jerusalem on Wednesday, October 22, 2025. (Marc Israel Sellem/Jerusalem Post/AP)

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“I will not allow Israel to annex the West Bank,” President Donald Trump said in the Oval Office in late September. “I won’t let this happen. This won’t happen.”

The Associated Press contributed to this report.