Israel’s US-approved plan to annex much of the West Bank, a naked violation of international law and act of racist thievery, aims to throttle Palestinian national aspirations out of existence. The move is based on the Trump administration’s “deal of the century,” a scheme that the Palestinians played no part in drawing up — less a road map to peace than an attempt to liquidate the Palestinian right to self-determination.

The arrangement supposedly seeks to resolve the Palestinian question by attempting to bribe Palestinians into granting Israel more land. They are expected to demilitarize without Israel doing the same and to accept a nonviable Bantustan in lieu of meaningful statehood, in return for meeting a long list of ludicrous conditions set out by their oppressors, including giving up the right of their refugees to return to their homes, and letting Israel and the United States either choose who governs Gaza or keep the territory unlivable.

Annexation would see Israel claim sovereignty overly roughly 30 percent of the West Bank, including most of the Jordan Valley and more than 230 illegal Israeli settlements — a familiar pattern of colonial larceny, given Israel’s earlier annexations of Jerusalem and of Syria’s Golan Heights, to say nothing of the 77 percent of historic Palestine that is presently called Israel.