Israeli Government Considers Imposing Israeli Law on Settlements Rather Than Annexation

By: Madeeha Al-A’raj

The ‘National Bureau for Defending Land and Resisting Settlements stated in its latest weekly report , that over the past few weeks, voices have been raised among the fascist Far-right, led by Smotrich and Ben-Gvir, and leaders of the Settler Council calling for a response to the recognition of the State of Palestine, by declaring the annexation of the West Bank´-or-parts of it to the occupying state as well as extending Israeli sovereignty on them. The councils’ leaders were touched with anxiety and tension, so they sent a delegation to New York to meet with Netanyahu and pressure him not to backtrack the move, which they consider the cornerstone of preventing the establishment of a Palestinian State.
The delegation included the head of the Yesha Council and head of the Binyamin Council, Yisrael Gantz, the head of the Samaria Council, Yossi Dagan, the head of the Ariel settlement, Yair Shtabun, the head of the Oranit Council,´-or-Biron Zomer, the head of the South Hebron Settlement Council, Eliram Azulai, the head of the Kedumim settlement, Uziel Witik, and the head of the Kiryat Sefer settlement, Dudi Shefler, along with the -dir-ector of the Yesha Council, Omer Rahamim. The delegation was on a mission they called “national” and called on Netanyahu to ignore the American position and move forward with his annexation plans and the imposition of sovereignty.
Within the context, the Times of Israel Newspaper quoted a senior Israeli official on the 26th of last month as saying, ‘PM Netanyahu never intended to annex parts of the West Bank in response to several countries recognizing a Palestinian state.’ The official said, ‘Regarding annexation in response to international recognition of a Palestinian state, there is no Israeli response. There will be no annexation, and Netanyahu did not intend to do so because he doesn’t want to jeopardize the ‘peace agreements’ with Arab states by annexing parts of the West Bank to Israel.’
The official explained that US President Trump made it clear that he wouldn’t allow Israel to annex the West Bank, and that he had saved Netanyahu from a major predicament in confronting the extreme right-wing elements in his government who were pushing for such a move. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu settled the matter, stressing that the same day in a conversation with settler leaders, whom he met in New York ahead of his meeting with US President Donald Trump, that the time was not right for what he called “extending sovereignty” to the West Bank, according to the Israeli website Walla.
Recently, the occupation forces forced the residents of the towns of ‘Beit Iksa, Nabi Samwil and Al-Khalayleh Neighborhood’, northwest of the occupied Jerusalem, to obtain permits to enter them, and considered entry into these villages as entry into Israel. They began to treat their residents as residents, not landowners. These villages suffer from almost complete isolation due to the racist Apartheid Wall, and the checkpoints and military gates that surround them, which deprived them of natural urban expansion, as their residents are prohibited from building new homes,´-or-bringing in life necessities except with special permits, which the residents consider a form of annexation.
Moreover, FM and Minister of Settlement in the Ministry of Army, Bezalel Smotrich announced about a month ago his approval of the construction of thousands of colonial units within the settlement plan in the E1 area, east of occupied Jerusalem, which means not only annexation but also destroying every opportunity for the embodiment of the Palestinian state on the ground, undermining its geographical and demographic unity, isolating Jerusalem from its surroundings, severing the geographical and demographic connection between Jerusalem and the Palestinian communities, and expanding the borders of the occupation municipality by annexing the Ma ale Adumim settlement bloc to it.
The alternatives to the declared annexation policy do not stop there. This is evident from the positions issued by a number of Israeli officials. Israeli Foreign Minister Gideon Sa ar stated that Israel does not intend to annex areas under Palestinian Authority control in the West Bank, but is considering the possibility of expanding the application of Israeli law to settlements, a move that comes in response to the recent series of Western recognitions of a Palestinian state. In an interview with the Italian ‘newspaper Corriere della Sera’ on Sep. 25, Sa ar explained, ‘We have no intention of discussing the annexation of Palestinian Authority areas, because we don’t want to control the Palestinian population, what can be discussed, but has not yet been decided, is the application of Israeli law to settlements in the West Bank, which are not under Palestinian Authority control.’
Noting that projects to apply Israeli law to settlements in the West Bank are not new, and that they are being implemented gradually to avoid provoking Arab and international reactions. We note here that the Likud Central Committee approved a decision on Dec. 31, 2017, to impose Israeli law on settlements in the West Bank. This decision requires members of the party s parliamentary bloc to commit to voting in favor of the law when it is presented to the Knesset. This decision was initially proposed by Yoav Kisch, a Likud member of the Knesset in late Dec. 2018, but was suspended by Israeli PM Netanyahu under the pretext of understandings with Washington regarding the process.
Twenty two bills were submitted over the years by right-wing parties calling for the imposition of full´-or-partial sovereignty over the settlements and the so-called ‘Area C’ before to this ‘Kish bill.’ The occupation government has also taken several decisions and measures indicating its gradual imposition of sovereignty over parts of the West Bank, through government decisions and parliamentary legislation. One example is the ‘Regularization Law’ in the Knesset, which was approved by the Knesset in its second and third readings in Feb. 2017. This law aims to regularize and strengthen Israeli settlement in ‘Judea and Samaria’ i.e. the West Bank.
In this regard, the Ministerial Committee for Legislation had approved in Feb. 2018 a bill submitted by then-Justice Minister Ayelet Shaked of the Jewish Home party, which would expand the jurisdiction of Israeli civil courts over Area C of the West Bank, while reducing the powers of the Supreme Court, which had sometimes curbed some settlement measures. At the same time, the Knesset approved in second and third readings the so-called ‘Ariel University Law,’ which aims to apply Israeli law to all higher education institutions established in settlements.
Within the context, the Knesset Finance Committee is currently discussing a request from the Ministry of Finance to allocate 21 positions to establish a new enforcement unit within the so-called ‘Israel Lands Authority’ operating in the West Bank. This represents a step toward annexation: the application of the Israel Lands Authority outside Israel s official borders. It also represents a significant expansion of law enforcement and demolitions against Palestinians in the occupied territories.
The so-called ‘Israel Land Authority’ operates within Israel under Israeli law enacted by the Knesset. In the West Bank, it doesn’t operate -dir-ectly, but rather through the Custodian of Government Property in the Civil Administration in accordance with international law and the legal system in force in the West Bank, -dir-ect operation by the Israel Land Authority in the occupied territories would constitute annexation, meaning that the Israeli government would administer the West Bank -dir-ectly rather than through the military, as required by international law.
Recently, the Israeli government has intensified what it calls law enforcement and demolition operations against Palestinians in Area C, and more recently in Area B. Over the past two years, the demolition of Palestinian structures under the pretext of lack of permits, has reached a record high of more than 1,000 per year. The body responsible for law enforcement and demolition operations in the West Bank is the Inspection Unit of the Civil Administration, which operates under military law. In recent years, the government has significantly increased its investment in this unit.
The Jerusalem city remains the focus of this racist and destructive policy by the occupation authorities, where 6 new Palestinian families that have 40 individuals face forced eviction from their homes in the Batn al-Hawa Neighborhood of Silwan after receiving eviction orders from the Israeli Enforcement and Collection Authority last Wednesday. Under these orders, the evictions can be carried out at any time between Oct. 19 and Nov. 4, 2025, after the families have pursued all legal avenues.
The Israeli Supreme Court rejected their appeals and ruled in favor of the Ateret Cohanim settler association, which controls a 19th-century Jewish trust and has exploited it to file dozens of lawsuits against the residents of Batn al-Hawa, as part of a years-long campaign aimed at seizing Palestinian homes and -convert-ing them into settlement outposts. The Ateret Cohanim settlement association, alongside other Israeli settlement organizations such as Elad, is a major arm of settlement, Judaization, and displacement projects in Jerusalem. It receives extensive government support and strengthens its influence and real estate projects within Palestinian neighborhoods.
The association claims that a large part of the Batan al-Hawa neighborhood was set aside in 1881 to house Jews who came from Yemen to Jerusalem. It uses this claim as a legal pretext to impose its control over the neighborhood. The association also bases its argument on the Absentee Property Law, passed by Israel in 1970, which grants Jews the right to reclaim what they claim to be their property in East Jerusalem prior to the 1948 Nakba, while Palestinians are denied a similar right to reclaim their occupied property. In 2002, the Israeli District Court recognized Ateret Cohanim s ownership of over five dunams in the Batan al-Hawa neighborhood, and subsequently initiated a series of legal proceedings aimed at evicting Jerusalemites from their homes and lands and resettling them with Jews.
On another level, on the 26th of last month, the UN Human Rights Office released an -Update-to its database of companies involved in certain activities related to illegal Israeli settlements in the occupied Palestinian territory, listing a total of 158 companies from 11 countries. Most of the companies listed in the latest -Update-are based in Israel, while others are located in Canada, China, France, Germany, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Portugal, Spain, the United Kingdom, and the United States. The report was commissioned by the UN Human Rights Council, which updates the database first issued in 2020.
The report identifies companies involved in certain activities listed in the Council s resolution, including, the supply of equipment and materials that contribute to the construction and maintenance of illegal settlements, the demolition of Palestinian homes and property, surveillance activities, the exploitation of natural resources for commercial purposes, and pollution and waste disposal in Palestinian villages. The Council added 68 new companies to the list published in 2023, while 7 companies previously listed were removed after they ceased engaging in the relevant activities, bringing the total number in the current -Update-to 158.
The new 2025 -Update-focuses primarily on business activities related to construction, real estate, mining, and quarrying. The Council informed all companies reviewed that it had received reports of their potential involvement in settlement related activities and called on them to provide relevant information and ‘take appropriate measures to address the adverse human rights impacts of their activities.’ adding, ‘Where companies determine that they have caused´-or-contributed to adverse human rights impacts, they must provide redress´-or-cooperate in appropriate processes.’
List of Israeli Assaults over the Last Week Documented by the National Bureau:
Jerusalem:
- Attacking the Khallet al-Sidrah Bedouin Community, east of the town of Mikhmas, and closed the only road linking the community to the town, completely isolating residents and preventing them from accessing basic services outside the area. Moreover, cut the electricity cables inside the community, causing power outages in homes and tents, in an attack that -dir-ectly targets the simple infrastructure on which residents depend in their daily lives.
- Uprooting olive trees in the Wadi al-Rababa Neighborhood of Silwan.
- Demolishing the courtyard of the ‘Fattoush Restaurant’ in the Al-Ram town, north of the occupied Jerusalem.
Hebron:
- Attacking an old lady Majda Abu Subha and 2 foreign activists, they sustained bruises and contusions in the village of Al-Fakhit in the Masafer Yatta area, assaulting residents, vandalizing water tanks, destroying fodder, and stealing property belonging to Akram Sari Abu Subha, and stormed the home of Mohi Ibrahim Abu Subha and attempted to steal his livestock.
- Attacking houses of citizens in the village of Al-Halawa in the Masafer Yatta area, throwing stones at them, assaulting citizens from the Abu Aram family, and stealing 2 donkeys from the village. The occupation soldiers also detained the young man, Moh’d Ahmad Abu Aram, after he confronted the settlers.
- Chopping hundreds of trees with electric saws in the Um Al-Batm area in the Sa ir Valley, in the Sa ir town. The cutting operations affected more than 200 old olive trees and more than 100 fruitful almond trees.
Bethlehem:
- Storming the Kisan village south and unleashed their sheep to graze the village s olive trees, wreaking havoc on citizens crops.
- attacking the vicinity of the Sweis family home south of Bethlehem in the Khalayel al-Loz area, amidst a state of tension and fear among residents of being subjected to any attack.
Ramallah:
- Attacking a Bedouin Gathering in the Ein Jaryut area near Beitunia and severely beat a child until he lost consciousness. He was then admitted to the hospital.
- Storming the vicinity of citizens homes and grazed their sheep between the houses, in a provocative act aimed at pressuring the residents and threatening their daily lives in the Sinjil town.
- Paving a settlement road in the ‘Al-Kreine a area’ between the towns of Beit Ur al-Fauqa and Deir Ibzi to the west, for the benefit of the ‘Beit Horon settlement’. This road blocks the road linking 8 towns: Beit Sira, Beit Nuba, Beit Liqya, Kharbatha al-Misbah, Safa, at-Tira, Beit Ur al-Fauqa, and Beit Ur al-Tahta, by the completion of this project, the village of Beit Ur al-Fuqa will be surrounded from all -dir-ections: the settlement of Beit Horon’ to the east, Road 443 to the south, and a military checkpoint with a gate to the west and north.
- Pumping of water from the Ein Samia wells east of the town of Kafr Malik, northeast of the city of Ramallah was stopped due to repeated settler attacks on it, which threatens to deprive thousands of citizens in more than 19 residential communities of their basic right to water.
Nablus:
- Confronting a settler attack on a house in the Yatmawi area, on the outskirts of the Beita town, south of Nablus. Settlers also set fire to parts of Abdul Hakim Al-Amer s house in the Ras Zeid area of Hawara town.
- Attacking Hisham Daghlas house on the outskirts of the Burqa town, on the road between Jenin and Nablus under the protection of the occupation army.
- Attacking vehicles passing by on the road adjacent to Yitzhar settlement, south of Nablus, with stones, causing damage to several of them. A number of settlers stormed the archaeological site of Sheikh Sho’la Castle in Naqoura village and conducted a provocative tour.
- Attacking Khirbet Tana, east of Beit Furik, east of Nablus, and began shooting and severely beating citizens, seizing their phones and wallets.
Salfeet:
- Attacking the family of Alam Al-Khafash in the Marda village, while they were on their land opposite Al-Raiq Park, adjacent to the village of Zeita, to pick green olives. They scattered the olives on the ground and pointed their weapons at the family.
- Attacking the northern outskirts of the Deiristiya town, while others attacked citizens lands in the Giza area of the village of Farkha, demolishing more than 200 meters of stone walls north of the village.
- Establishing a settlement outpost in the ‘Al-Jinainat area’, west of Deiristiya, and set up tents on a plot of land estimated at 44 dunams.
Qalqilia:
- Establishing a new settlement outpost east of Qalqilia, near the Karnei Shomron settlement, in a provocative move in response to a number of countries recognizing the Palestinian state. They named the outpost after policeman Elad Winkelstein, who was killed in an operation a year ago.
- Banning work notices on 3 homes and a concrete factory in the village of Hajja, east of Qalqilya. Local sources reported that the occupation forces delivered stop-work notices to three homes built on an area of no less than one and a half dunams, and served a stop-work notice on a concrete factory belonging to Mahdi Asaad Ruba.
- Establishing a settlement outpost after storming the Ras Bishr area west of the Jinsafut village, east of Qalqilya, near the Karnei Shomron and Gilad Hill settlements, and erected a two-story ‘Caravan’ in the area, which covers an area of about 100 dunams and is planted with ancient olive trees, and they raised the flag of the occupying state over it.
Jordan Valley:
- Attacking citizens lands in the Shallal Al-Auja area, north of Jericho, through repeated attempts to seize land and move into agricultural areas without any deterrent. Others stormed the Al-Hamma community in the northern Jordan Valley and attacked citizens homes, intimidating, threatening, and assaulting them.
- Storming the eastern area of the Tammun area, and were present on top of one of the town s eastern mountains, while others established a new settlement outpost in the Al-Auja Waterfall community, in the area that previously included the homes of citizens.

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