This is not the first time that an information is leaked about Israel›s intention to annex the West Bank or large parts of it. Israeli and American officials and Israeli governments have previously announced their intention to impose annexation plans by force of occupation, settlement, and displacement.
Since it occupied the West Bank, the Gaza Strip, and part of the city of Jerusalem, Israel has taken measures on the ground that consolidate the reality of annexation and the imposition of Israeli sovereignty over the West Bank. Although the Israeli position in the post-occupation period was aimed at not provoking the world with measures that were incompatible with its status as an occupying state, the settlement procedures, Judaization, and daily occupation practices indicated that Israel was dealing with the lands of the West Bank as part of the “State of Israel.” Oslo agreement did not change the fact that Israel’s strategy towards the occupied Palestinian territories is annexation and not withdrawal. Rather, Israel benefited from these agreements to impose a fait accompli policy through the expansion of settlement operations (the number of settlers in the West Bank increased from 1990 to 2024 from about 230 thousand to about one million settlers).
It seems clear that the annexation plan constitutes a common denominator among the various political parties, and although the methods and forms of expression of this plan vary, everyone believes that settlement in the West Bank is a “national value,” as stated in the “Nation-State Law for Jews in Israel” of 2019. The official American position does not lag far behind the Israeli position, although the American positions avoid publicly approving this plan. However, more than one American official expressed explicitly that “Israel has the right to annex” part of the West Bank lands, according to what the American ambassador said in Israel in 2019. The American Deal of the Century also noted the annexation of Israeli settlements and placing them under Israeli sovereignty under the headings, “The American administration will not oppose expanding the scope of Israeli law to include West Bank settlements.”
Legally, in June 2020, a group of Human Rights Council experts submitted a report on the annexation plans and their repercussions on the Palestinian people. The report considered that “the Israeli occupation is a source of severe violations against the Palestinian people, and any annexation process will be a cause of wars, economic destruction and political instability,” calling for “accountability and ending impunity to become an immediate priority for the international community,” calling for “taking accountability measures to cancel the annexation and end Occupation and conflict in a just and lasting manner.
Recently, the American newspaper «The New York Times» published information confirming that the Israeli government is preparing a plan to annex the West Bank and abort any attempt to be part of the Palestinian state. This plan will be implemented in a gradual manner to wrest control of the West Bank from the hands of the Israeli army and hand it over to civilian employees in the Ministry of Defense working under the command of Finance Minister Smotrich, who said, “Israel has established a separate civilian regime, while the army remains present, so that it appears to the world that it is still… In the heart of government in the West Bank.
Smotrich›s words were preceded by confirmed data that the Israeli army transferred significant legal powers in the West Bank to civil servants who support the settlers and who work for Smotrich, who previously insisted on holding some of the keys to the civil administration or large parts of it, with the aim of facilitating granting settlers new settlement licenses in the West Bank. This administration is responsible for settlement in Area C, which is under Israeli control in accordance with the Oslo agreement, and whose area equals more than 60% of the area of the West Bank. This administration is also responsible for the demolition of Palestinian homes under the pretext that they are “not legally licensed.” It was established in 1981 with the aim of Misleading the world and making it feel that things are normal in the West Bank, and that the relationship between Israel and the Palestinians is governed by law and political institutions, and not an unacceptable occupation that must be resisted with all forms of resistance.
These data and other daily practices, whether by the occupation army or the settlers, confirm the fact that Israel is on its way to annexing the West Bank, even if this has not been officially announced, and this is something we put in the picture of the Western countries that are still talking about the “two-state solution.” “Which is trying to absorb global popular anger and the clear change in the trends of international public opinion in favor of the Palestinian cause, which has become fully convinced of the danger that Israel poses and that it is a criminal entity in the hands of the Western imperialist alliance to protect its interests in the region and a striking tool for all liberation movements calling for breaking away from this alliance.” .
The United States and some Western countries are still talking about the Battle of Al-Aqsa Flood as an event separate from the context of the occupation and its practices, procedures and daily laws, which confirm in every detail that Israel is continuing with its eradicating occupation project to control the Palestinian land and displace its population, which puts the Palestinian people before a choice. One is resistance. If the international community wants stability in Palestine and the region, it is important to address its causes before the explosion occurs, as happened on October 7, and to consider that Israel and its allies are responsible for everything that will result from the extremist and racist policies of Israel and its leaders.
The annexation plan is the title that tops the agenda of the Israeli government, which unites all its components on the process of eradicating the Palestinian people from their land. Regardless of the terminology used to express this plan, some of it is clear and does not require much effort to confirm, after it has become an executive plan with its legal mechanisms and field translations confirmed by the practices of the occupation in its various formations… This can be felt through what leaked about this plan and its goals.