Annexation is not destiny!!

At the recommendation of the settlers, the “Settlement Administration” was established in 2023 in the Israeli Civil Administration, whose mission is to decide the future of Area C in the West Bank in favor of the settlers. In the same year, Yehuda Eliyahu was appointed head of this administration in the Ministry of Defense. Eliyahu is the right-hand man of Bezalel Smotrich, the Minister of Finance and Minister of Settlement in the West Bank in the Ministry of Defense, and both are founders of the “Regavim” organization, which fights what it calls the “Palestinian presence” in Area C of the West Bank. This administration was formed pursuant to a document issued by the “Shilo Forum” settlement organization in 2020, and not by a government decision.

The Shiloh Forum is a settlement strategic studies center, most of whose ideas, work programs and recommendations find their way to implementation by the Israeli government. The forum accused the Civil Administration in a document issued by it of not having the necessary tools to deal with the illegal “Palestinian occupation” of Area C, and of being slow to respond to the challenges facing the settlers. In the end, the recommendations of the Shiloh Forum were realized, by placing the future of the C lands in the West Bank on the government’s agenda, regularizing the status of 70 settlement outposts, and declaring large areas of West Bank land as state land, with the aim of registering these lands in the Israeli Land Registry in the future, which means their complete and final annexation.

The settlers and the extreme right, led by Netanyahu and the duo Smotrich and Ben Gvir, see the appointment of Mike Huckabee, a settlement enthusiast, as US ambassador to Israel, as raising great hopes regarding the imposition of Israeli sovereignty over the West Bank, in light of the fact that Trump had planned in his first term to declare Israeli sovereignty over parts of it as part of the "Deal of the Century" plan. The estimates of the settler leaders and their representatives in the government indicate that in light of the composition of the new US administration, Trump will not oppose the imposition of Israeli sovereignty over the West Bank or parts of it. According to the newspaper "Israel Today", high-level sources in the Israeli government see Trump's new term as an opportunity that will not be repeated, and that plans to declare partial sovereignty over the settlement blocs in the West Bank must be pushed forward from now.

Trump's unjust policy towards the Palestinians during his first term is still fresh in people's minds, so it is unreasonable to expect that his policy during his second term will be different from the previous one. It is not true that he will not support Israel's annexation plans because he no longer needs the support of the Israeli lobby in Washington, "AIPAC", because his current term is his last, or that he will punish Jews who voted for the Democratic Party in the elections, or that he will take revenge on Netanyahu for congratulating Biden on winning in 2020. The appointments made by Trump to senior administration officials leave no room for doubt that he will resume his policy towards the Palestinian-Israeli conflict in the next four years from where he left off during his first term, which requires a Palestinian confrontation at the regional and international levels, no matter how high the price of this confrontation, because the lack of confrontation will cause serious damage to the Palestinian entity, the consequences of which in the future, if the annexation is implemented, will include the displacement of millions of Palestinian people, and what may follow from plans in later stages.

The annexation of the West Bank or parts of it by Israel “is not an inevitable fate. It can be addressed based on international law, which considers settlements an attack on Palestinian territory, as confirmed by the ruling issued by the International Court of Justice in July 2024, which demands that Israel end the occupation of the West Bank and East Jerusalem. The establishment of settlements and outposts is a flagrant violation of international law, as stated in UN Security Council Resolution No. 2334 issued in December 2016.

But some will ask in disapproval: Since when has Israel complied with international legitimacy resolutions, or adhered to international law? Yes, that is true. Israel has never implemented UN resolutions on the Palestinian issue since it was established in 1948. It also does not abide by international law, many of whose agreements it has signed. It is determined to move forward with implementing annexation plans, disregarding international law, and then moving on to the "conflict resolution" plan, which constitutes the political program on the Palestinian issue of the Religious Zionism Party led by Smotrich, which has also become an undeclared program of action for the Israeli government. The summary of this plan is for the Palestinian people to lose hope in establishing a Palestinian state, and to create a difficult and complex living reality for the Palestinians with the aim of displacing the largest possible number of them, on the path to undermining the Palestinian entity.

Some may also argue that the Palestinian Authority, in its current state, is unable to confront the Israeli annexation plans for objective and subjective reasons, but this is not accurate, because it has pressure cards to confront the Israeli annexation project with American support, but these cards need to be activated, which cannot be done without a decisive political will, especially since annexation is a battle for existence, first the existence of the Palestinian people, and that what comes after annexation will affect the Palestinian Authority with all its components as well. These cards include, but are not limited to, stopping all forms of relations with Israel, regardless of what measures Israel may take against the Authority, its leadership, and the Palestinian people.

The Authority can also escalate its diplomatic activity on the international scene, by mobilizing support for a draft resolution to be presented to the United Nations General Assembly to boycott Israel based on the International Court of Justice’s decision in July 2024, similar to General Assembly Resolution No. (1761) issued in 1962 against the apartheid regime of South Africa, which called on member states to sever diplomatic relations and trade with the regime (arms exports in particular), in addition to all forms of political, economic, cultural and sports boycott. The Palestinian Authority can also benefit from international support (especially in Europe) for the Palestinian people and their cause, resulting from the Israeli war of extermination on the Gaza Strip, and urge the international community to translate this solidarity into thwarting the annexation plan and recognizing the Palestinian state.

The Trump administration will find it difficult to “convince” America’s allies in the region if it decides to recognize Israel’s annexation of the West Bank or parts of it, because many countries in the region have changed their alliances and ties with international powers competing with the United States in the four years between Trump’s first and second terms. This may force Trump not to provide cover for Israel to move forward with its annexation plans, especially since, as a merchant seeking to conclude profitable deals, he may resort to exchanging his non-support for the Israeli annexation plan in exchange for normalizing Israel’s relations with Arab countries.

Despite all of this, the danger of Israel’s annexation plans cannot be underestimated, and by betting on the possibility that the Trump administration will not provide political cover for these plans, this annexation is also not an inevitable fate for the Palestinians!!