The U.S. State Department condemns the violence in the West Bank.

The acting spokesperson for the U.S. Department of State, Tommy Bigot, stated on Thursday that the United States condemns the violence in the West Bank.

Bigot, responding to a question from a Jerusalem reporter regarding settler violence, noted that Palestinian villages are facing an increasing rate of violence in light of the absence of accountability and the impunity, especially since "dozens of U.S. lawmakers have visited the settlements, describing the West Bank as Judea and Samaria, and claiming it is a 'legitimate right for the Jews,' and so on: 'Well, our position is that we want to see a stable West Bank that maintains Israel's security and aligns with this administration's goal of achieving peace in the region. In the short term, we continue to focus on ending the war in Gaza.'

In response to a question from the Jerusalem reporter regarding what a group of Israeli academics wrote about Israel quietly annexing the West Bank, Bigot said: 'Once we have broader discussions about what we might see leading to longer-term peace and prosperity in the region - I won't outline that here. But we have consistently condemned violence in the West Bank from this platform and elsewhere, regardless of who commits it. We want to see a stable West Bank that, again, maintains Israel's security and aligns with our ultimate goal of seeing a prosperous region.'

It is noteworthy that a group of Israeli academics published a joint article in the Israeli newspaper Haaretz last Tuesday discussing the ongoing 'quiet annexation' of the occupied West Bank, especially since the Knesset voted on July 23 in favor of a seemingly dramatic declaration: recognizing the right of the State of Israel in Judea and Samaria, and reinforcing Israeli sovereignty over the Jewish settlements in the area (in Area C). Israeli media announced that this is the 'beginning of the annexation' of the West Bank to the State of Israel.

The academics stated in their article: 'But the reality is quite the opposite: this declaration is not the beginning. It is a smokescreen designed to obscure the fact that annexation has already occurred - not through a constitutional theater, but through quiet, consistent, and mundane bureaucratic activities.'

'The claim that completing the annexation requires an official declaration is at the heart of this smokescreen. This misleading idea enables the right-wing government to operate in the West Bank as the sovereign without paying an international price. It also allows the opposition to "oppose" the annexation only in words, or alternatively, to complain about the coalition's failure to move forward with the annexation - depending on the directed party. The fundamental assumption in Israeli public discourse, which includes politicians from both the right and center-left, is that annexation requires an official declaration, such as legislation or a public announcement that changes the status of the land. This seems to be the approach adopted by other countries as well. But this is a legally inaccurate assumption. In fact, annexing land does not require a declaration or legislative law.'

The authors (Professor Yael Berda from the Department of Sociology and Anthropology at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem; Dr. Tamar Magidow from the Department of International Relations and Political Studies at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem; and Dr. Ronit Levin-Shchor from the Faculty of Law at Tel Aviv University) point out that it is sufficient, to recognize that 'full' annexation is occurring, to look at the normative regulatory framework through which the state manages the occupied territories, the organizational structure and bureaucratic mechanism of the state; and the symbolic practice of power.

It is noteworthy that the International Court of Justice adopted in its advisory opinion issued in July 2024 the position that annexation does not require an official declaration. It also found that Israel has already annexed at least parts of Area C. In other words, the undeclared annexation, which is carried out through bureaucratic means, is actual annexation.

The academics state: 'The actions of the Israeli government in the past two years have led Israel to complete the annexation of the land already, without a political roadmap or legislation. It has done so through a comprehensive change in the authority of the government bodies operating in the areas, the structure and methods of its control over the areas, and how it uses the budgets allocated to establish and deepen Israeli control.'