Suhail Khalil: What is happening represents landmines planted by the occupation on the path to establishing a Palestinian state and undermines any efforts towards a comprehensive peace process based on the two-state solution.

Sylvia Abu Laban: Israel is working to complete the administrative infrastructure for annexing the West Bank by transferring powers from the Civil Administration, a military body, to the Settlement Administration.

Aseel Malihat: The danger of the project lies in its timing, as it comes at a time when the world is preoccupied with successive crises, the international community is silent, and the international community is failing.

Adel Shadid: Preventing the settlement project in the West Bank can only be achieved through struggle, and the reality of the West Bank for years does not allow for a popular and peaceful struggle.

Dimitri Diliani: We are facing a colonialism that is redrawing Palestinian geography according to the map of brutal military force, not according to the logic of law or the course of history.

While the official international community continues its deafening silence on the ongoing Israeli crimes of ethnic cleansing and war of extermination in Gaza, the occupying state is proceeding with its expansionist settlement project in the West Bank, in implementation of the "decisive plan" devised by extremist Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich. This plan is being rapidly implemented, aiming to permanently block the possibility of establishing a Palestinian state within any potential political settlement.

Writers, experts, and analysts who spoke to Al-Quds emphasized that what is happening is like landmines planted by the occupation in the path to establishing a Palestinian state, undermining any efforts toward a comprehensive peace process based on a two-state solution. They pointed out that preventing the settlement project in the West Bank can only be achieved through struggle, and that the reality on the West Bank for years has prevented the existence of either popular or peaceful struggle.

They explained that Israel is working to complete the administrative infrastructure for annexing the West Bank by transferring powers from the Civil Administration, a military body, to the Settlement Administration, adding: "We are facing a colonialism that is redrawing Palestinian geography according to the map of brutal military force, not according to the logic of law or the course of history."

They stressed that the project's seriousness lies in its timing, as it comes at a time when the world is preoccupied with successive crises, amidst the global silence and inaction of international institutions.

Settlement expansion, bypass roads, and industrial zones

Settlement affairs expert Suhail Khaliliya said that the settlement project currently being discussed, which is likely to change the landscape of the West Bank, is actually based on three main pillars.

He explained that the first pillar is settlement expansion through construction and the approval of settlement projects. The number of settlement units approved has reached approximately 40,000 since the current government took office. This expansion, during the same period, has been accompanied by the demolition of more than 4,000 Palestinian homes and facilities across the West Bank.

The second pillar, according to Khalil, is the bypass road network, which currently exceeds 960 kilometers in length.

He pointed out that the government has allocated a budget estimated at $2 billion to expand this network and pave new roads for the settlements, including agricultural and pastoral roads, in addition to constructing tunnels and bridges to facilitate the movement of settlers and separate the road networks designated for them from those used by Palestinians.

He added that the third pillar relates to settlement industrial zones, which are a major attraction for settlers.

23 settlement industrial zones

He explained that the West Bank currently includes 23 settlement industrial zones occupying an area of more than 20,000 dunams of Palestinian land, while plans have been prepared to establish 35 additional industrial zones on a new area exceeding 25,000 dunams.

He pointed out that these areas constitute a serious source of pollution to the Palestinian environment, including lands and water basins, given the lack of any oversight or accountability over their management.

Khaliliya explained that the above was crowned by the transfer of civil administration powers from the occupation army to a civilian authority headed by extremist Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich, with the participation of representatives from the Settlements Council. In addition, National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir established what is known as the "Settlers' Army," which was provided with weapons and training.

He also pointed to ongoing efforts to recruit ultra-Orthodox (Haredim) religious groups into the ranks of the occupation army, not only to bolster military power in its aggression against the Gaza Strip, but also as part of preparations to hand over the security file in the West Bank to the Settlements Council.

Khaliliya emphasized that what is happening represents, in fact, landmines planted by the occupation in the path to establishing a Palestinian state, undermining any efforts toward a comprehensive peace process based on the two-state solution.

In concluding his remarks, Khaliliya considered that Israeli policies are consolidating the nucleus of a self-governing settler state, seeking to share the West Bank with the Palestinians while maintaining the upper hand for the settlers, as part of a systematic policy to impose a fait accompli.

Very dangerous facts and data

For her part, political activist Sylvia Abu Laban said that over the past two years, since the rise of the far-right coalition government headed by Benjamin Netanyahu to power in the occupation, extremely dangerous facts and data have begun to emerge on the ground in the West Bank, indicating that the colonial seizure and annexation projects have reached their most extreme stages, represented by the escalation of forced displacement projects.

She added: "Today, approximately 740,000 Israeli settlers live in settlements in the West Bank, including 240,000 living in occupied Jerusalem. Israel has accelerated settlement construction in the West Bank, including Jerusalem, to advance its interests and implement its annexation plans."

She emphasized that the establishment of a record number of illegal outposts has now become the appropriate tool for implementing Smotrich's annexation plans, in addition to the sharp increase in settler activity, road closures, and unprecedented measures to legalize and finance illegal outposts.

Abu Laban explained that the Israeli government is working to complete the administrative infrastructure for annexing the West Bank by transferring powers from the Civil Administration, a military body, to the newly established Settlement Administration, a civil and political administration under the direct authority and control of extremist Minister Smotrich. Israel has also designed a new set of measures to tighten its control over the occupied Palestinian territories and consolidate the annexation of Area C in the West Bank by 2025.

She said: These steps include completing the transfer of authority from the army to an administration under Smotrich's leadership, and appointing a civilian deputy who has been given the powers of the head of the Civil Administration regarding settlements.

Mechanisms to confront the settlement project

Regarding how to confront the settlement project, Abu Laban added: "Smotrich's plan to annex the West Bank poses an existential threat to Palestinian rights, as it aims to consolidate Israeli control by altering the demographic, legal, and geographic reality. The plan includes unprecedented settlement expansion, the legalization of illegal outposts, and the restriction of Palestinian freedoms, undermining any possibility of establishing a viable Palestinian state."

She believes that the settlement plan must be confronted through:

1- Strengthening national unity among Palestinian factions to confront challenges in a unified manner.

2- Supporting popular and peaceful resistance in the West Bank to protect lands and property.

3- International and legal pressure through the International Court of Justice and the United Nations to impose sanctions on Israel and hold it accountable for its violations of international law and Security Council Resolution No. 2334 (2016), which affirms that the settlements constitute a violation of international law, calls for a halt to their activities, and stresses the need for a negotiated settlement based on the 1967 borders, and related resolutions.

4- Strengthening international isolation, activating legal accountability mechanisms, and intensifying efforts within the United Nations, the Security Council, and the General Assembly to issue resolutions condemning the de facto annexation steps and demanding their cessation.

5- Exposing and revealing the mechanisms of actual annexation in the media and internationally by documenting violations and publishing them in the media to expose the policies of ethnic cleansing and creeping annexation.

Preserving Palestinian identity and resisting forced displacement

She said: "In the absence of a just political solution, the priority must be to preserve Palestinian identity and resist forced displacement, while continuing to demand the right to self-determination in accordance with international law."

Regarding the implications of this if implemented, Abu Laban pointed out that Smotrich presents his vision as a "realistic, geopolitical, and strategic" plan. He claims that it is based on an analysis of reality and its roots, and supported by realistic, historical, democratic, security, and political considerations. He believes it is the only solution "with real value" compared to all other proposed solutions. The plan aims to respond to any attempts and projects calling for the partition of the country or the transfer of lands to the Palestinians under any future political settlement, to erase the Palestinian narrative, and to impose the Israeli narrative, dissolving it in the Palestinian mindset that no Arab state or sovereignty will be established under any circumstances, and that it is the Land of Israel.

Abu Laban explained that his proposal is based on a "radical shift" in political thinking, a 180-degree departure from previous Zionist policies. He believes that most political plans from the right and left have perpetuated and managed the conflict, not resolved it. He presents his plan as a solution to the "root of the problem" and the root of the failure of all "political solutions," past and present.

Living on the edge of the sword

She continued: Smotrich also denies the existence of "Palestine" or the "Palestinian people," and claims that the Palestinians are merely an anti-Zionist movement that arose in reaction to the Zionist project. He believes that the continued existence of two opposing national aspirations in a small geographical area will lead to "living by the sword" for years to come, and that peace can only be achieved if one side abandons its national ambition. He believes that the side that must abandon it is the "Arab side," because the Jews "will not give up" their national project of establishing the sole Jewish state. He believes that his plan is not fundamentally different from Benjamin Netanyahu's plan, which proposes an "incomplete state" for the Palestinians, without real sovereignty or control over borders, an army, and space, and therefore not an actual state.

Abu Laban concluded her remarks by saying: “The Israeli occupation policy is rapidly and, in many respects, irreversibly eliminating the possibility of establishing a viable two-state solution. It will contribute to the perpetuation of deteriorating Palestinian living conditions, make the realization of Palestinian political and national aspirations impossible, and deprive Palestinians of any independence or absolute sovereignty. This is an option that the Palestinians cannot accept. The Palestinian leadership must reassess the effectiveness of the call for a two-state solution and consider other options.”

comprehensive strategic plan

For her part, journalist Aseel Malihat, media officer at Al-Baydar Organization for Defending Rights, said that the settlement project planned by the Israeli occupation in the West Bank, which the National Bureau for Defending Land and Resisting Settlements has warned against, is not merely a process of urban expansion or the construction of housing units. Rather, it is part of a comprehensive strategic plan aimed at redrawing the map of the West Bank to serve the long-term colonial occupation project and to eliminate any prospect of establishing an independent, sovereign Palestinian state.

Malehat noted that the new settlement project is part of a series of systematic measures pursued by the occupation authorities aimed at altering the demographic and geographic character of the occupied Palestinian territories, whether through land confiscation, the establishment of illegal settlement outposts, or the construction of bypass roads that serve the settlements and separate Palestinian villages from each other, facilitating the imposition of a reality of division and isolation, and ending the geographical contiguity between Palestinian cities.

She pointed out that implementing this project would create facts on the ground that would enable the occupation to effectively annex large parts of the West Bank, even if this is not officially announced.

Expansionist plans and attacks on Palestinians

She added that these plans are being pursued in parallel with widespread repression against Palestinian citizens and forced displacement in the Jordan Valley and Jerusalem, in an attempt to create an environment that repels Palestinians, undermine their resilience, and transform them into isolated human islands in disjointed cantons.

Malehat explained that the danger of this project also lies in its timing, as it comes at a time when the world is preoccupied with successive crises, amidst a deafening international silence, and the failure of international community institutions to shoulder their legal and moral responsibilities to protect the Palestinian people from Israeli colonial policies, which constitute a flagrant violation of the Fourth Geneva Convention, international humanitarian law, and United Nations resolutions, particularly Resolution 2334, which condemns settlements and considers them illegal.

Malihat added that the occupation would not have persisted with its settlement projects had it not been for its awareness of the lack of international accountability, the lack of deterrence tools, and the fact that it is treated as a "state above the law."

She stressed that the occupation is exploiting every moment of political vacuum, internal Palestinian division, and international silence to impose new facts on the ground that undermine the Palestinian national project.

A comprehensive Palestinian movement is required.

Malehat called for a comprehensive Palestinian movement, beginning with reorganizing the internal situation and unifying the national front against settlements. She then moved on to activating all legal, diplomatic, and media tools of confrontation, immediately resorting to international institutions to prosecute the occupation for its crimes, and working to mobilize the international community and address the people, not just governments. This is because today's battle is a battle for awareness and public opinion, as much as it is a battle for existence and a struggle on the ground.

Malehat emphasized that the media's role at this stage must be exceptional, not limited to simply transmitting news, but extending beyond that to deconstructing the colonial narrative and presenting the Palestinian narrative with clarity and force.

She stressed the need for Palestinian, Arab, and international media, especially independent media, to be partners in exposing the crimes committed against the Palestinian people and revealing the true objectives of these projects, which aim to transform Palestine into a map of settlements and besiege everything Palestinian.

Journalist Aseel Malihat concluded her speech by saying: “We, at Al-Baidar Organization for Defending Rights, believe that this phase requires collective responsibility and a unified national stance that is not subject to compromise or narrow calculations. We have no choice but to resist in all its legitimate forms, and to cling to our land, identity, and rights, because what is being proposed is not a construction project, but rather a project of uprooting. Our people, who faced the Nakba, the Naksa, and the occupation with their legendary steadfastness, will continue their struggle until liberation, return, and the establishment of their independent state on all Palestinian national soil, with Jerusalem as its capital.”

The struggle needs someone to lead it

For his part, Israeli affairs expert Adel Shadid said that preventing the settlement project in the West Bank can only be achieved through struggle.

He pointed out that the struggle needs someone to lead it, explaining that the reality on the West Bank for years does not allow for a field struggle, or even a popular and peaceful struggle.

He stressed that despite the repeated talk about popular resistance, popular resistance has not been practiced by either the Authority or the Fatah movement.

Shadid believes that this settlement project is ongoing, and he sees no possibility of preventing it. As we mentioned, it can only be prevented by an international resolution, which is unavailable and unthinkable, or by field struggle, which is also completely unthinkable.

He strongly warned against implementing the dangerous settlement project, which would completely change the topographical and demographic features of the West Bank and alter the pressure structure in the West Bank.

Shadid added that this issue would also lead to the engineering of the West Bank in a way that would accelerate the encirclement and siege of all Palestinian communities and achieve actual annexation, without media or decisions, but rather by creating a new reality on the ground that would be difficult to reverse.

Underground settlement roads in the West Bank

Writer and political analyst Dimitri Diliani said: "The settlement roads being built underground in the occupied West Bank are no less dangerous than the houses being demolished above them, because we are facing a colonialism that is redrawing Palestinian geography according to the map of brutal military force, not according to the logic of law or the course of history."

Diliani warned of the essence of the accelerating settlement project in Jerusalem and the rest of the occupied West Bank, which is now fueled by the international blackout and regional preoccupation with the open war of extermination in Gaza.

He said, "The occupation is not satisfied with military force to impose its control, but rather employs planning and infrastructure tools as a new form of silent aggression, which leads to a political geography that severs the ties between Palestinian cities and villages."

A deliberate attempt to redefine Palestinian existence

Diliani asserts that the roads being paved today in the West Bank are strategic extensions of the creeping annexation project, which seeks to transform the Palestinian presence into isolated enclaves, besieged by settlements, outposts, and pastoral farms. These are cultivated as facts on the ground, unrecognized by law, but which find in the international community's silence a de facto legitimacy.

Dalyani concludes by emphasizing that what is happening in the occupied West Bank is a deliberate attempt to redefine Palestinian existence itself, such that Palestinians become guests in a geography over which they have no authority, no sovereignty, and no access except by begging for permits from the occupying authority. These are not roads connecting the settlements, but knives severing the arteries of Palestinian life.