Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has vowed to annex nearly a third of the occupied West Bank if he wins next week’s snap election.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu: “Today I am announcing my intention to apply, with the formation of the next government, Israeli sovereignty on the Jordan Valley and northern Dead Sea.”

Netanyahu’s pledge was widely denounced by leaders in the region, in part because it would crush hopes of an eventual Palestinian state. Longtime Palestinian negotiator Saeb Erekat said the move would add to Israel’s long history of violating international law.

Saeb Erekat: “What Prime Minister Netanyahu said tonight about asking his people for a mandate to allow that will enable him to annex the Jordan Valley is paramount to a war crime. Annexation of occupied territories is a war crime.”