Palestinian fury at Israeli party's call to annex parts of West Bank

Tel Aviv (dpa) - The Palestinian Authority hit back on Monday at a vote by the governing Likud party of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu calling for annexation of a large part of the West Bank.The vote at the Likud party meeting on Sunday was "an outrageous violation of the resolutions of international legitimacy," spokesman Yousef al-Mahmoud said, according to the official PA news agency Wafa.It showed "irony and contempt for the entire United Nations system," al-Mahmoud said.Since the Six-Day War in 1967, the West Bank has been occupied by Israel, which controls large parts of it, even though the area is regarded as Palestinian territory under international law.In a landmark decision, more than a thousand members of the right-wing Likud party adopted a resolution on Sunday calling for Israel to exercise "sovereignty" over parts of the West Bank and for the continued building of Jewish settlements.Al-Mahmoud said that only international laws can apply to the West Bank and the Gaza Strip, "rather than laws imposed by [Israeli] military force and domination."The annexation resolution by the Likud central committee is not binding on the government, but it does put more pressure on Netanyahu, who was not present at the meeting near Tel Aviv. Settlements on occupied Palestinian territory are one of the most contentious aspects of the long-running and bloody dispute between the Israelis and the Palestinians.Some 600,000 Israelis live in more than 200 settlements in the West Bank and East Jerusalem, which Palestinians hope to make the capital of their future state.