Israel’s annexation of the West Bank has begun

Israel ‘s  devastating air and ground operations against Hamas in Gaza, contributed to escalating violence, destruction and related humanitarian needs in the West Bank since  October 7th 2023. Israeli Defence Forces’ (IDF) operations, the militarisation of settlers, have increased civilian casualties, home demolitions and the displacement of Palestinians.

Heightened violence and displacement, along with movement restrictions, have also prevented Palestinian access to livelihoods and essential services across the West Bank.

 Israel has imposed additional economic and bureaucratic constraints on the Palestinian Authority (PA) and the West Bank Palestinians, including a current ban on West Bank workers from entering Israel and the intermittent freezing of tax revenue, compounding livelihood losses.

On the other hand, Israel has recently approved the largest seizure of land in the occupied West Bank in more than three decades, according to a report released   by an Israeli anti-settlement watchdog, a move that will exacerbate the escalating tensions surrounding the conflict in Gaza.

Peace Now said that Israeli authorities recently approved the appropriation of 12.7 sq km (of land in the Jordan Valley, indicating it was “the largest single appropriation since the 1993 Oslo accords”.

Settlement monitors have said the recent land acquisition links Israeli settlements along a crucial corridor adjacent to Jordan- a development they say threatens the formation of a future Palestinian state.

Israel captured the West Bank, the Gaza Strip and East Jerusalem in the 1967 June war, territories the Palestinians want for a future state.

 Since then, successive Israeli governments have made efforts to permanently cement Israeli control over the land, in part by declaring large swathes as “state lands”, which prevents private Palestinian ownership.

The recent land seizure, which was approved late last month but only recently publicised, comes after the seizure of 8 sq km of land in the West Bank in March and 2.6 sq km in February.

Peace Now said the Israeli prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, and far-right finance minister, Bezalel Smotrich, “are determined to fight against the entire world and against the interests of the people of Israel for the benefit of a handful of settlers”.

“Today, it is clear to everyone that this conflict cannot be resolved without a political settlement that establishes a Palestinian state alongside Israel,” the group added. “Still, the Israeli government chooses to actually make it difficult.”

On her part, UN spokesperson Stéphane Dujarric called it “a step in the wrong direction”, adding that “the direction we want to be heading is to find a negotiated two-state solution”.

In a leaked recording captured by Peace Now, Smotrich, during a conference for his National Religious Party-Religious Zionism, disclosed that the land confiscations in 2024 surpassed previous years’ averages by approximately tenfold.

“This thing is mega-strategic and we are investing a lot in it,” Smotrich said. “This is something that will change the map dramatically.”

In May 2023, Smotrich, who said his “life’s mission is to thwart the establishment of a Palestinian state”, had instructed Israeli government ministries to prepare for 500,000 more Israeli settlers who will move into the occupied West Bank.

On the other hand, the Israeli military has quietly handed over significant legal powers in the West Bank to pro-settler civil servants working for Smotrich.

An order posted by the IDF on its website on 29 May transfers responsibility for dozens of bylaws at the Civil Administration – the Israeli body governing in the West Bank – from the military to officials led by Smotrich at the defence ministry.

On their part since 7 October, settler violence and harassment directed at Palestinian communities persisted dramatically across the West Bank, including East Jerusalem.

Settlers have stepped up beatings and attacks, forcing Palestinians to flee to nearby towns.

However, settlers have carried out more than 1,000 attacks on Palestinians in the West Bank since October, causing deaths and damaging property, according to the UN.

Estimates indicate about 700,000 Israeli settlers live in roughly 300 illegal settlements in the occupied West Bank and East Jerusalem.

All Jewish settlements in the occupied territories are considered illegal under international law.

Further, there has been a rapid increase in Palestinian home demolitions.

The monthly reports of the PLO-affiliated Commission against the Separation Wall and Settlements revealed that the IDF carried out 194 demolitions, mostly residential buildings, in the West Bank in the first five months of 2024, affecting 254 Palestinian facilities.

According to OCHA, between 7 October 2023 and 1 July 2024, 539 Palestinians, including 131 children, were killed in the West Bank and East Jerusalem , while between 1 and 7 July there were at least 160 recorded Israeli Security Forces search and arrest operations across the West Bank, including East Jerusalem.

Three million Palestinians in the West Bank live under seemingly direct Israeli military rule.

The Palestinian Authority administers enclaves scattered across the territory, but is barred from operating in 60 per cent of the West Bank, which includes the settlements as well as areas with a population of hundreds of thousands of Palestinians.

Israeli state television reported on June 28 that the Security Cabinet, at the request of Smotrich, approved the legalisation of five illegal settlements in Area B of the occupied West Bank, inhabited by Israelis who usurped Palestinian land.

As part of the "Second Oslo Accords" signed between Palestine and Israel in 1995, the occupied West Bank was divided into Areas A, B and C.

The administrative and security management of Area A, which covers 18 per cent of the West Bank, was transferred to Palestine, the administrative management of Area B, which covers 21 per cent, was transferred to Palestine and its security to Israel, while the administrative and security management of Area C, which covers 61 per cent was left to Israel.

Describing it as "the most dangerous challenge facing the Palestinian people since the Nakba", Mustafa Barghouti, the head of the Palestinian National Initiative, said in a post on X that the decision aims to completely seize the civilian authority of the PA in Area B of the West Bank.

Smotrich's plan includes stripping the PA of executive powers in the southern West Bank and applying Israeli law in Area B, which is under Palestinian civil and administrative control.

The extremist Israeli government is trying to eliminate all hopes of establishing a Palestinian presence, which could be seen by Israel as a threat to the Zionist project, because it could turn into a demand for independence, a national identity or the realisation of a national self which is the  “RIGHT” of the Palestinians.

Najla M. Shahwan is a Palestinian author, researcher and freelance journalist.