{"id":282529,"date":"2026-02-09T18:44:46","date_gmt":"2026-02-09T18:44:46","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/282529\/"},"modified":"2026-02-09T18:44:46","modified_gmt":"2026-02-09T18:44:46","slug":"israeli-plans-deepen-de-facto-annexation-of-occupied-west-bank-occupied-west-bank","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/282529\/","title":{"rendered":"Israeli plans deepen de facto annexation of occupied West Bank | Occupied West Bank"},"content":{"rendered":"

While the world remains fixated on the devastation in Gaza and escalating regional tensions, the Israeli government has quietly executed<\/a> a \u201clegal coup\u201d in the occupied West Bank, drawing condemnation from Palestinians.<\/p>\n

Late on Sunday, Israel\u2019s security cabinet ratified a series of decisions pushed by Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich and Defence Minister Israel Katz. The new measures, which aim to expand Israel\u2019s power across the occupied West Bank, will make it easier to seize Palestinian land illegally.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe are anchoring settlement as an inseparable part of Israel\u2019s government policy,\u201d said Katz.<\/p>\n

Experts say it will fundamentally alter the civil and legal reality of the territory, removing what the Israeli ministers termed \u201clegal obstacles\u201d that have existed for decades against the expansion of illegal settlements in the occupied territories.<\/p>\n

The Palestinian presidency called the decision \u201cdangerous\u201d and an \u201copen Israeli attempt to legalise settlement expansion\u201d and land confiscation.\u00a0President Mahmoud Abbas\u2019s office called on the United States and the United Nations Security Council to intervene immediately.<\/p>\n

On Monday, eight Muslim-majority countries denounced Israel<\/a> for trying to impose \u201cunlawful Israeli sovereignty\u201d in the occupied West Bank.<\/p>\n

Palestinian officials and legal experts warn that this package effectively terminates the 1993 Oslo Accords, stripping the Palestinian Authority (PA) of its remaining civil powers and legislating the de facto annexation of the West Bank.<\/p>\n

\"INTERACTIVE(Al Jazeera)The real estate war<\/p>\n

At the heart of these decisions is a strategic assault on land ownership laws that have been in place since 1967, when Israel occupied Gaza, the West Bank and East Jerusalem and subsequently annexed these territories.<\/p>\n

The Israeli cabinet approved the cancellation of a Jordanian law that historically prohibited the sale of land in the West Bank to non-Arabs. Simultaneously, the government decided to lift the secrecy on land registry records in place since the Ottoman period.<\/p>\n

According to Amir Daoud, director of documentation at the Wall and Settlement Resistance Commission, this move is designed to create an \u201copen market\u201d for settlers. By exposing the identities of Palestinian landowners in the registry, settlers and real estate companies can now target specific individuals for pressure, extortion, or entrapment to force land sales.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis government puts settlement expansion at the centre of its policy,\u201d Daoud told Al Jazeera Arabic. \u201cBy facilitating the leak of Palestinian land to settlers, they are adding a new layer of apartheid.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Yesha Council, a gathering of illegal settlements, celebrated the decision as the \u201cmost important in 58 years\u201d, stating that the Israeli government is now declaring, in practice, that \u201cthe land of Israel belongs to the Jewish people\u201d.<\/p>\n

Breaching Areas A and B<\/p>\n

Perhaps the most aggressive shift in the new directives is the authorisation for Israeli forces to conduct enforcement and demolitions in Area A and B zones, which under the Oslo Accords, are supposed to be under Palestinian civil and security control.<\/p>\n

Area C, which is under total Israeli control, constitutes 60 percent of the West Bank. More than 700,000 illegal Israeli settlers live in Area C and occupied East Jerusalem across more than 250 illegal settlements.<\/p>\n

To bypass international law, Israel has introduced a new legal mechanism: the \u201cProtection of Antiquities and Environment\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cIsrael has erased the distinctions between Areas A, B, and C,\u201d Daoud noted, explaining that this policy was financially primed three years ago when the cabinet allocated 120 million shekels ($39m) to \u201cprotect Jewish heritage sites\u201d in the West Bank.<\/p>\n

Municipal apartheid<\/p>\n

The decision also institutionalises a system of \u201cmunicipal apartheid\u201d in key Palestinian cities, removing them from PA jurisdiction.<\/p>\n

Hebron: Planning and construction powers have been stripped from the Palestinian municipality and transferred to the Israeli Civil Administration. A \u201cseparate municipal entity\u201d will be created for the Jewish settlers in the heart of the city to manage their affairs independently, bypassing Palestinian mechanisms entirely.
\nRachel\u2019s Tomb (Bethlehem): The site has been removed from the jurisdiction of the Bethlehem municipality and placed under direct Israeli administration for maintenance and services.<\/p>\n

Adel Shadid, an expert on Israeli affairs, warned that these administrative changes have profound religious and political implications.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe Ibrahimi Mosque is no longer treated as a Muslim holy site managed by the Palestinian Awqaf,\u201d Shadid told Al Jazeera Arabic. \u201cIts management has been transferred to the Jewish Religious Council in Kiryat Arba. Israel has effectively Judaized its identity by law, not just by force\u201d.<\/p>\n

In 2010, the Israeli government had already proclaimed<\/a> the Ibrahimi Mosque located in Hebron as a \u201cJewish Heritage site\u201d.<\/p>\n

\"INTERACTIVE(Al Jazeera)Pre-empting Trump<\/p>\n

The timing of this \u201clegal overhaul\u201d is not accidental. According to Yedioth Ahronoth newspaper, Smotrich and Katz pushed to ratify these decisions immediately prior to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu\u2019s upcoming visit to the United States.<\/p>\n

Analysts believe Israel\u2019s far-right government is racing against time to establish irreversible \u201cfacts on the ground\u201d before October elections for the Israeli parliament or Knesset, and amid fears that US President Donald Trump might shift his stance on annexation.<\/p>\n

James Moran, a former adviser to the European Union, believes the intent is clear.<\/p>\n

\u201cSmotrich was quoted saying: \u2018We will continue to kill the idea of a Palestinian state,’\u201d Moran told Al Jazeera Arabic from Brussels. \u201cThis decision shows there is absolutely no intention for a just solution\u201d.<\/p>\n

Netanyahu has repeatedly said that he is against the formation of a sovereign Palestinian state. He has worked to undermine the Oslo Accords that called for the so-called two-state solution. Several Western governments, including France and the United Kingdom, last year recognised Palestinian statehood. But they have done little to deter Israel from expanding illegal settlements on Palestinian lands \u2013 the biggest stumbling block in the realisation of a Palestinian state.<\/p>\n

Moran argued that international condemnations are no longer sufficient. \u201cIt is time for sanctions,\u201d he said, suggesting that the EU should consider suspending trade agreements with Israel, given that a third of Israel\u2019s trade is with the bloc.<\/p>\n

Violence unleashed<\/p>\n

On the ground, the cabinet\u2019s decisions were interpreted by the settler movement as a \u201cgreen light\u201d for total impunity.<\/p>\n

Al Jazeera Arabic\u2019s correspondent in Hebron, Montaser Nassar, reported an immediate spike in violence following the announcement. \u201cWhat is happening on the ground is the true translation of these decisions,\u201d Nassar said.<\/p>\n

Within hours of the ratification:<\/p>\n

Settlers raided the Al-Rashaydeh Mosque east of Bethlehem, stealing its contents and causing severe damage.
\nIn Bani Naim, east of Hebron, settlers brutally beat an 80-year-old disabled Palestinian man.
\nDemolition notices were handed to Palestinians in Berin (east of Hebron), while demolitions were carried out in Bedouin communities in the northern Jordan Valley.<\/p>\n

Dalal Iriqat, a professor of diplomacy and conflict resolution, warned that the situation has moved beyond the point of political manoeuvring.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe are witnessing the institutional and legal annexation of the West Bank,\u201d Iriqat told Al Jazeera Arabic.<\/p>\n

\u201cIsrael is imposing a reality of \u2018Greater Israel\u2019 and apartheid. If the international community does not move from statements to action, the situation on the ground will explode.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"While the world remains fixated on the devastation in Gaza and escalating regional tensions, the Israeli government has…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":282530,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[2664,42,44,47,43,45,48,40,38,41,39],"class_list":["post-282529","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-headlines","tag-features","tag-headlines","tag-israel-palestine-conflict","tag-middle-east","tag-news","tag-occupied-west-bank","tag-palestine","tag-top-news","tag-top-stories","tag-topnews","tag-topstories"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/282529","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=282529"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/282529\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/282530"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=282529"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=282529"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=282529"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}