Israel pushes West Bank annexation ahead of Trump meeting
Israel’s security cabinet has approved a series of measures aimed at easing land purchases by settlers in the occupied West Bank while granting Israeli authorities greater control over Palestinians, according to The Arab Weekly and agencies on February 9th.
Approval was granted on February 8th, just days before a meeting between Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and US President Donald Trump was scheduled.
This is despite the West Bank being an important territorial basis for the establishment of a Palestinian state because settlement expansion would undermine the possibility of a territorially contiguous Palestinian state.
The West Bank has been under Israeli occupation since 1967, and is largely controlled by Israel’s army and Tel Aviv’s civil administration. According to statements by Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich and Defence Minister Israel Katz, the measures approved on February 8th include scrapping decades-old regulations that prevented Jewish private citizens from purchasing land in the West Bank.
The decision also expanded Israeli jurisdiction over several archaeological sites and granted the settlement administration the authority to apply its own laws, even in areas formally under the control of the Palestinian Authority (PA).
While these policies are being formalised through binding decisions by Israel’s political institutions, the violent annexation carried out by settlers, sometimes with the support of the Israeli military on the ground, is becoming increasingly pervasive.
This trend is reflected in the latest data released by the UN humanitarian agency OCHA on February 5th, which reported that more than 700 Palestinians were displaced in January 2026 alone due to settler attacks and Israeli military operations.
The Palestinian presidency stated that the “decisions reflect an open Israeli attempt to legalise settlement expansion, land confiscation and the demolition of Palestinian properties, even in areas under Palestinian sovereignty.”
In his statement, President Mahmoud Abbas urged Trump and the UN Security Council to intervene. The appeal comes just days before the meeting between the US and Israeli presidents.
While the Trump administration has repeatedly stated that it does not support annexation, following a Knesset vote in October backing such a move, Israel’s ambitions to consolidate control over the West Bank have continued without significant interruption.
According to a recent United Nations report, settlement expansion in 2025 reached its highest level since at least 2017, despite settlements being considered illegal under international law.
Analysts argue that the political push toward annexation of the West Bank could prove electorally advantageous for Netanyahu ahead of upcoming elections, particularly given that many members of his governing coalition openly support the settler movement, most notably ministers Smotrich and Itamar Ben Gvir.
The Arab Weekly and agencies, Maghrebi.org
Want to chase the pulse of North Africa?
Subscribe to receive our FREE weekly PDF magazine
