Will Israel formally annex the occupied West Bank?

Like other Palestinians living in the occupied West Bank, Muhammad Ghafri is closely following the news related to Israel's outspoken intention to annex it in the coming year.

The term "annexation of the West Bank" doesn't differ much from the reality for Palestinians live there, as most of the lands have already been confiscated or are under the threat of confiscation by the Israeli authorities, and the Israeli settlements are no longer merely small gatherings on top of mountains and hills, but rather surround and absorb Palestinian villages and towns.

Israel seeks to impose full control over large areas in the occupied West Bank, including the border Jordan Valley area and all its illegal settlements in Area C. 

In general, there are about 144 official settlements and more than 100 settlement outposts in the West Bank, occupying about 42% of its area, and have 600,000 Israeli settlers. The settlements are considered illegal by international law and numerous UN resolutions. 

Preventing Palestinian access

Ghafri and his family own hundreds of dunams in his village of Sinjil, located about 15 kilometres northeast of Ramallah. For a full year, they have been prevented by the Israeli authorities from accessing these lands, out of 5,000 dunams that Israeli settlers aspire to control.

In light of the talk about an annexation plan, it is believed that these Palestinian lands will be handed over to the Isreali settlers with ease.

Recently, Israel began constructing a wall to confiscate tens of new dunams of village land under security pretexts, extending up to 1.5 km and four meters high.

"The new wall led to the uprooting of hundreds of perennial olive trees, and all lands on both sides of it will be off-limits to Palestinians," Ghafri said to The New Arab.

The construction of the new wall aims to isolate the village from the northern lands threatened with confiscation, which constitute a geographical extension between Israeli settlements established on the lands of several Palestinian villages, including Sinjil, so that the picture becomes clearer that the goal is to connect the Israeli settlements together and facilitate the movement of settlers between them.

"The plan is to establish a large settlement bloc in this area that completely isolates the northern West Bank from its centre, and the key to that is completing the confiscation of our lands, which the new wall will prevent us from," Ghafri added.

A week ago, after being prevented for more than a year, Ghafri was able to reach his land planted with olive trees, only to find that settlers had wreaked havoc on it and had released their cows to graze on it.

The Israeli settlers established a pastoral settlement outpost in those lands in preparation for controlling them, while the Israeli army takes measures to prevent Palestinians from accessing them until the Israeli courts officially approve the confiscation decisions.

In this way, the lands of Palestinian villages and towns are plundered, and Sinjil is but one example out of hundreds.

Real and silent annexation

Israel wants to impose sovereignty on all settlements, but it is prepared to test this on the large ones first, the most important of which are "Kiryat Arba" in Hebron, "Gush Etzion" near Bethlehem, "Ma'ale Adumim" near Jerusalem and Ramallah, and "Ariel" near Nablus.

Director General of Publication and Documentation at the Racist Wall and Settlement Resistance Authority, Amir Daoud, told TNA that the annexation plan is not new, but it has returned to the forefront given the extremist nature of legislators in the Israeli Knesset and government.

He explained that the reality of the land in the occupied West Bank is complicated by a number of measures imposed by Israel, as it fully controls 42 percent of its total area, and 70 percent of the lands classified as "Area C".

"What Smotrich said is what Israel is doing on the ground and not what it will do. It has been continuing settlement expansion and confiscations for years, and we view what Smotrich said as an actual implementation of the annexation plans," Daoud added.

All the laws and draft laws that are included in the Israeli Knesset aim to implement actual annexation of the occupied West Bank, most notably the draft law to annex the settlements in the southern West Bank to the authority to develop the Naqab and Galil and impose Israeli sovereignty over the Jordan Valley, according to Daoud.

The plan to impose sovereignty over the Jordan Valley and the occupied West Bank settlements is an old plan that Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu sought for years, and now is awaiting the approval of the incoming Donald Trump administration.

The Israeli Kan channel said that the work on formal annexation has been practically prepared and is ready for implementation and even includes access roads to the settlements, emphasising that each settlement will also have a potential to expand in size.