Following criticism from U.S. Vice President James David Vance regarding the preliminary vote in the Knesset on the annexation of parts of the West Bank — and the publication of an interview with Time magazine the previous day, in which U.S. President Donald Trump stated that if annexation takes place, Israel would “lose all kinds of support” from the United States — Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office issued a statement calling the vote “a deliberate political provocation by the opposition, aimed at sowing discord during Vice President Vance’s visit to Israel,” The Times of Israel reported.

“Both bills were supported by opposition members of the Knesset,” said the statement from the Prime Minister’s Office. “The Likud party and the religious parties — the main members of the coalition — did not vote in favor of these bills, except for one disgruntled Likud member who was recently dismissed as chair of a Knesset committee. Without Likud’s support, these bills are unlikely to pass.”

In fact, members of the coalition parties Otzma Yehudit and Religious Zionism voted in favor of the bill.

The bill calls for Israel to “apply its laws and sovereignty to the settlements in Judea and Samaria, thereby affirming the status of these territories as an integral part of the sovereign State of Israel.”