Recent decisions by Israel’s political and security cabinet have delivered a new blow to the already weakened two-state solution, a vision that Israel has steadily eroded through settlement expansion, separation walls, bypass roads, and wars marked by mass killing and displacement.
These measures have now culminated in decisions to strip the Palestinian Authority (PA) of its powers, even in Area A of the Occupied West Bank, which under existing agreements is supposed to remain under full Palestinian control.
During its latest meeting on Sunday, Israel approved a set of decisions that are expected to bring about far-reaching changes in the management and registration of land in the Occupied West Bank. The measures deepen Israel’s annexation agenda and allow for the demolition of Palestinian-owned buildings in Area A, which falls under Palestinian civil and security authority according to the Oslo Accords signed in the 1990s.
The decisions, pushed by Defence Minister Israel Katz and Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich, aim to significantly expand settlement activity in ways that would be difficult to reverse due to legal complexities, according to the Israeli news website Ynet.
One of the key measures involves lifting the confidentiality of the West Bank land registry, making it publicly accessible and allowing potential buyers to view the names of landowners and approach them directly to purchase land.
Another decision calls for legislation to lift the ban on selling land in the West Bank to non-Arabs, abolish the requirement for official approval of property transactions, and allow settlers to purchase land as individuals rather than solely through companies. This would remove current restrictions on Jewish and settler property purchases, enabling land acquisition with fewer bureaucratic procedures.
The decisions also contradict the 1997 Hebron Agreement, with analysts saying the government of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is seeking to implement the de facto annexation of the Occupied West Bank ahead of the Israeli elections scheduled for October.
Under the new measures, the Israeli occupation authorities will transfer building permit powers in the city of Hebron, including the Ibrahimi Mosque, from the Hebron Municipality to the civil administration unit of the Israeli army, which is overseen by Smotrich. According to Ynet, this move will lead to the expansion of the Hebron settlement enclave and effectively strip the Hebron Agreement of its substance.
The settlement enclave in Hebron will be transformed into an independent local authority. A similar model will apply to Rachel’s Tomb in Bethlehem, which will be separated from the Bethlehem Municipality through the establishment of a special “local authority directorate” in a move that would effectively annex the area to Israel.
Palestinians across the political spectrum condemned the Israeli decisions. However, there was broad consensus that verbal denunciations are no longer sufficient to confront what are seen as dangerous Israeli plans. The Palestinian presidency called on the international community to take a firm stance to prevent the implementation of the decisions.
It warned that the measures amount to the practical execution of annexation and displacement plans, violate all agreements signed between the Palestine Liberation Organisation (PLO) and Israel, breach international law and international resolutions, and constitute a blatant violation of the Oslo Accords and the Hebron Agreement.
It said the decisions represent an Israeli attempt to legalise settlement activity, seize land and demolish Palestinian property, even in areas under Palestinian sovereignty.
It also warned of the dangers posed to Islamic and Christian holy sites, stressing that any infringement on the Ibrahimi Mosque and the transfer of authority over it are unacceptable. It said Israel alone bears responsibility for continued attacks on holy sites, particularly amid concerns of escalation ahead of the holy month of Ramadan.
Palestinian Vice-President Hussein Al-Sheikh said reports of imminent Israeli decisions to deepen annexation and impose new realities in the West Bank, including in Area A, amount to a dismantling of binding agreements and represent a dangerous escalation and a flagrant violation of international law.
He said the unilateral measures aim to eliminate any political horizon, destroy the two-state solution and drag the region into further instability, calling on the US administration and the international community to intervene.
Reuters quoted a senior White House official as saying that US President Donald Trump has made it clear he does not support Israel’s annexation of the West Bank. The official said the US administration believes stability in the West Bank serves Israel’s security and aligns with Trump’s stated goal of achieving peace in the region.
Political analyst Najib Faraj said the recent Israeli decisions have driven the final nail into the coffin of the peace process, which Israel has been dismantling for more than 15 years.
He said the steps form part of a comprehensive policy aimed at Judaising Palestinian land and displacing its population, adding that there is no fundamental difference between what is happening in the West Bank, including Jerusalem, and what has unfolded in Gaza.
He argued that US criticisms of Israeli actions, including past statements by Trump, do not address the core issue of settlement expansion but focus instead on secondary matters. Faraj said Israel has not only seized land but also reshaped the West Bank’s infrastructure to serve settlements, effectively turning Palestinian areas into settlement zones.
He dismissed US opposition to the annexation as “illusory”, arguing that Washington continues to provide Israel with weapons, military support and political cover, including by withdrawing from international accountability mechanisms to shield Israel from scrutiny.
Shortly after the cabinet’s approval, Smotrich and Katz, accompanied by settlers and Israeli forces, entered land belonging to the town of Ni’lin west of Ramallah.
In a post on X, Smotrich said the cabinet had approved a series of decisions he had drafted with Katz to “remove longstanding obstacles and systematically strengthen settlement in Judea and Samaria.” He said opening land registries would increase transparency and facilitate land purchases, while abolishing old Jordanian regulations would simplify transactions.
Omar Rajoub, director of media at the Jerusalem governorate, which is facing what he described as the most brutal and extensive Judaisation campaign, said in remarks to Al-Ahram Weekly that the decisions taken by Israel’s political and security cabinet are the most dangerous since 1967. He said they represent a desperate Israeli attempt to impose a new colonial reality through settlement expansion and to alter the legal status of occupied Palestinian land, including the city of Jerusalem.
He explained that the measures go beyond expanding settlements or imposing new facts on the ground, describing them instead as a qualitative shift towards comprehensive institutional and legal annexation. He said this would effectively eliminate any legal or administrative presence of the PA, particularly in areas classified as Area A and large parts of Area B.
He added that these policies signal a return to full Israeli control over the management of land and resources, including land, real estate, ownership records and demolition decisions, effectively placing the entire West Bank under direct Israeli control.
Rajoub stressed that the decisions are the most dangerous since 1967 because they do not merely expand settlement activity but seek to overhaul land and demolition regimes in their entirety, entrenching Israeli sovereignty and control as a fait accompli.
He noted that this marks the first time the issues of land, ownership and demolition have been reopened on such a broad scale, including East Jerusalem, which is under unified Israeli administration rather than fragmented zones of influence. He said this reflects a clear shift from a policy of imposing facts on the ground to actual, institutional, and legal annexation of the West Bank.
Rajoub said the real danger of these decisions begins with their implementation on the ground, which is already taking place. From a legal perspective, he stressed that the latest Israeli decisions constitute a clear violation of international law, a direct blow to the two-state solution, and an assault on the inalienable rights of the Palestinian people, foremost among them their right to establish an independent state.
He underscored that Israel has no sovereignty over Palestinian land, and that these unilateral measures are illegal, null and void, and represent a flagrant breach of UN Security Council resolutions, particularly Resolution 2334, which condemns all Israeli actions aimed at altering the demographic composition, legal character and status of territories occupied since 1967, including Jerusalem.
Rajoub also cited the advisory opinion of the International Court of Justice (ICJ), which has affirmed the need to end the Israeli occupation and the illegality of annexing Palestinian land.
He said the situation in Jerusalem is the most complex and dangerous element of the Palestinian national cause, as Israel seeks to resolve the issue of Jerusalem by force, through the use of weapons and what he described as “criminal methods”, while disregarding all Palestinian national rights and flouting international norms and conventions.
On the issue of renewing residency and identity cards for Jerusalemites, Rajoub said Israel is imposing unprecedented restrictions, particularly in the Old City, where residency renewals are denied unless the registered address is outside the Old City and in some cases even outside certain Arab neighbourhoods in East Jerusalem.
In the light of these developments, Rajoub said Jerusalem, along with the West Bank, is entering an extremely dangerous phase amid the rapid acceleration of Israeli measures aimed at forcibly imposing a new political and legal reality, entrenching institutional annexation and dispossessing landowners in blatant violation of international law.
* A version of this article appears in print in the 12 February, 2026 edition of Al-Ahram Weekly
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