The Knesset's symbolic decision is a legal and political prelude to the actual annexation declaration.

Rasim Obeidat

The Israeli Knesset's decision, taken on Wednesday, July 23, 2025, by a majority of 71 votes, excluding the Arab parties, means that two-thirds of the Knesset members support annexation and Judaization. The decision calls on the Knesset to the government to translate this decision into action on the ground. In practice, this decision is not a surprising step, and although it is merely a symbolic announcement, it upsets the political balance and entails many risks. It constitutes a legal and political prelude to the actual annexation process, which Ben-Gvir and Smotrich preceded with practical steps on the ground, by establishing, legalizing, and expanding more settlement outposts and settlements, even in the heart of the West Bank, dismembering Palestinian land, restricting Palestinian movement on the roads, preventing Palestinian construction in Area C, stripping the Palestinian Authority of its administrative powers over Area B, strengthening religious settlement in the West Bank by establishing synagogues and Jewish cemeteries, and what is known as pastoral settlement, seizing the largest area of Palestinian land, confiscating 24,000 dunams of West Bank land, and carrying out the largest operation of geographic "engineering." And demographics in the northern West Bank, through systematic ethnic cleansing, expulsion, displacement and demolition of entire neighborhoods in the Tulkarm and Nur Shams refugee camps and the Jenin refugee camp, and Smotrich giving the residents of the West Bank a choice between the three worst options: expulsion and displacement outside the borders of Palestine, killing in the field, or remaining as water carriers and woodcutters for Israeli society, after isolating them in scattered islands in the vast Israeli ocean. Let's not forget the decision to change the name of the West Bank to the State of Judea and Samaria, and the non-recognition of the Palestinian people, and the claim that this is an invention less than a hundred years old, and the return of settlements to the four settlements that were evacuated in northern Jenin, in what was known as the disengagement from the Gaza envelope settlements in 2005, the settlements of Homesh, Kadim, Sanur and Ganim.

Israel has also enacted laws, one of which considers the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA) an illegal organization with which dealings are prohibited. It also revokes all benefits and privileges granted to its members, and prohibits it from operating in areas under Israeli sovereignty.

All of this was accompanied by Ben Gvir giving free rein to thugs and settler gangs to launch the most widespread criminal operations against the Palestinians, through the comprehensive invasion of the West Bank and Jerusalem, with daily attacks resulting in deaths and injuries, the destruction and burning of homes and property, the blocking of roads, the theft of crops, the expulsion and displacement of Bedouins from the Jordan Valley, the Masafer Yatta area, and the villages east of Bethlehem from their lands, the demolition of their homes and tents, the killing of their animals, and the burning of their crops and pastures.

The main provisions of the proposal contained in the Knesset resolution stipulate that Jewish settlements in the West Bank and the Jordan Valley be subject to Israeli civil law, including planning and building laws, education, taxes, and court laws.

This means abolishing the reliance on military orders that have been in place in these areas since 1967.

The proposal also explicitly addresses the issue of administrative and security annexation of Jewish settlements, granting Israeli ministries, such as the Interior, Education, and Housing, direct responsibilities for managing settlement affairs.

Referring settlers' legal and administrative cases to Israeli civilian courts instead of the military judicial system.

Let's not forget that this decision encourages the establishment of new infrastructure projects and the expansion of existing settlements, considering them a "natural" part of Israel, which means accelerating the confiscation and settlement processes.

There is also no doubt that this decision has political and international dimensions, and as I mentioned previously, this decision upsets the political balance. When the decision states that cities such as Nablus, Hebron, and the settlements of Shiloh and Beit El express the historical continuity of the Jewish presence in the Land of Israel, and that these areas are part of the historical, cultural, and spiritual homeland of the Jewish people, this text says unequivocally that these settlements are part of the occupying state, and that abandoning them in any future settlement is out of the question.

The move comes in response to pressure from right-wing parties and settlers, who view any delay in annexation as a concession to international pressure.

We realize the symbolism of this decision, because the commencement of the annexation and Judaization operations, the increase in the pace of settlement, and the increase in the number of settlers in the West Bank, in an unprecedented manner, began since the period when Smotrich assumed responsibility for settlement and the powers of the Civil Administration in the West Bank, as well as Ben Gvir’s unleashing of his settlers in a comprehensive war on the cities, towns, villages and camps of our people in the West Bank, and the maps that were displayed on the website of the Israeli Ministry of Foreign Affairs in the Arabic language, and the maps that Netanyahu presented in the sessions of the United Nations General Assembly (78) and (79) show the occupying state as including all of the area of historical Palestine, and parts of Jordan, Lebanon, Syria, Iraq and even parts of Egypt and Saudi Arabia.

Given the apparent alignment between the two extreme right-wing administrations in Israel and the United States, we find Trump adopting the same Israeli terminology and concepts, justifying the annexation of the West Bank by citing Israeli security needs, claiming that Israel is a small state on the map that must expand into Arab geography, and even supporting the Israeli decision to consider the West Bank as "the land of Judea and Samaria."

This decision, although all Palestinian factions, including the presidency, have expressed their rejection of it, and that it unilaterally cancels all United Nations resolutions, including Resolution 2334, which was issued in late 2018, regarding the illegitimacy of settlements and settlements in Jerusalem and the West Bank, which the United States did not object to, and demanded that Israel stop all its settlement activities in Jerusalem and the West Bank, and consider them illegal. This decision also constitutes a blatant and impudent violation of all international laws, charters and agreements, and tarnishes the Oslo Accords. However, all this vocabulary and language are no longer useful in the face of Israeli “encroachment” and “savagery” supported and participated in by the United States, in closing all the gates of a political solution, which open horizons for a solution based on the two-state solution.

It is also no longer feasible to continue to subject the rights of the Palestinian people to the changing American administrations and Israeli governments, nor to impose conditions on those who wish to be part of the organization and to recognize international legitimacy—the very international legitimacy whose institutions, dismissed by Venezuelan revolutionary President Maduro, are ineffective, incompetent, and ineffective in their support of oppressed peoples.

Hence, the Israeli escalation and denial of the legitimate national rights of the Palestinian people, and the denial of their existence, must not be met with continued adherence to the same clichés and terms and the lowering of the ceiling of Palestinian demands, until they are accepted by Israel and America. The experience of the new Syrian regime is the best witness and proof. Whenever Syria concedes a title of sovereignty, they demand a new concession, and whenever they occupy a piece of land, they demand control over new land.

Hence, in light of these serious risks and challenges facing our people, our cause, and our national project, it is imperative to form a Palestinian emergency leadership, in which all colors and components of the Palestinian political spectrum participate, including Hamas, Jihad, the PLO factions, civil society institutions, and popular sectors. This leadership must meet on the basis of a comprehensive political program based on steadfastness and resistance, and launch the Oslo Accords and all its political, economic, and security commitments, including mutual recognition between the PLO and the occupying state. It must also work to implement all decisions issued by the meetings in Moscow, Beijing, and other Arab capitals between the Palestinian political parties, and implement the relevant Central Council decisions.

There is no time for procrastination, delay, or betting on America, the so-called international community, or the countries of the official Arab regime. The priority is to put the Palestinian house in order. There is no time for outbidding, assigning responsibility, bickering, incitement, or counter-incitement. The dangers and challenges facing our cause are very great, and the circle of conspiracy against our people is expanding. Trying what has been tried and tested, such as betting on negotiations and what is known as international legitimacy, will lead to the liquidation and dissipation of our cause, and the expulsion and displacement of our people, especially since these projects are firmly on the American-Israeli table.