Half of Israelis support annexing parts of the occupied West Bank, although they are divided over whether to take the step without US support, an opinion poll showed on Wednesday.
Some 25 percent of Israelis surveyed by the Israel Democracy Institute think-tank said they want their government to apply sovereignty to Jewish settlements and the Jordan Valley in the West Bank even without backing from Israel’s closest ally.
US President Donald Trump’s plan for Israeli-Palestinian peace includes Israel keeping most of its settlements in the West Bank, territory that Palestinians seek for a state.
Palestinians have rejected Trump’s proposal. They and most countries consider Israel’s settlements in the West Bank illegal. Israel disputes this.
Another quarter of the 771 Jewish and Arab Israelis polled preferred annexation only with Washington’s backing, while another 30 percent opposed the move entirely. The remaining 20 percent were undecided.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has pledged to begin cabinet discussions on July 1 on extending Israeli sovereignty to Jewish settlements and the Jordan Valley - a de facto annexation of land captured in the 1967 Middle East war.
The Trump plan also envisages negotiations leading to a Palestinian state under near-complete Israeli security control, creating what Palestinians leaders say would be an unviable country.
Despite the majority voicing support for Netanyahu's proposal, implementing his plan would very likely lead to an uprising, according to 58 percent of Israelis surveyed.
The most recent Palestinian uprising, known as the Second Intifada, erupted in the early 2000s and included waves of suicide bombings and deadly Israeli responses.
Israeli settler leaders, who met Netanyahu on Tuesday, have voiced concern that annexation under the Trump blueprint would also entail Palestinian statehood and leave some settlements isolated within Palestinian-ruled territory.
Israeli cabinet minister Tzachi Hanegbi said on Army Radio on Wednesday that settlers need not worry “because there will never be” a Palestinian state. Israeli-Palestinian talks collapsed in 2014, part of a now-moribund peace process that began in the 1990s.
On Monday, Defense Minister Benny Gantz ordered the army to speed up "military preparedness ahead of political steps on the agenda in the Palestinian arena".
Hundreds rally against
On Wednesday, hundreds of protesters rallied against annexation in Nablus, in the northern West Bank, carrying Palestinian flags.
"It's the start of an active movement on the ground to defy the decision by Israel to annex, a decision which undermines the Palestinian national project," said protester Khaled Mansour.
For Jihad Ramadan, the Nablus secretary of Fatah, the party of Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, Israel aims to "kill the Palestinian dream" with its annexation plans.
"But it's an illusion to think that they can prevent the creation of a Palestinian state," he said.
Abbas has on numerous occasions threatened to cut all security ties with Israel if annexation goes ahead, while trying to rally the international community to the Palestinian cause.
According to analysts, ending such cooperation could threaten relative calm in the West Bank, home to 2.7 million Palestinians and 450,000 Israelis.
The latter live in Israeli settlements which are viewed as illegal under international law, but were recognized by the United States in November.
Experts say the Israeli government has a narrow window of opportunity to move ahead with annexation, before US presidential elections in November that could see its ally Trump voted out of office.
