Palestinians, Arab states, Israeli activists and UK have condemned Israel’s new West Bank measures as amounting to de facto annexation.
Israel’s latest moves to tighten control over the occupied West Bank have drawn sharp condemnation from Palestinians, Arab states, Israeli anti-occupation groups and the United Kingdom, amid warnings that the measures amount to de facto annexation.
The decisions, approved by Israel’s security cabinet and announced by far-right Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich, would significantly ease the process for Jewish settlers to acquire Palestinian land. Smotrich said the steps were aimed at strengthening Israeli control of the territory, declaring: “We will continue to kill the idea of a Palestinian state.”
All Israeli settlements in the West Bank are widely regarded as illegal under international law, a position Israel disputes.
The measures, which are expected to be formally signed off by Israel’s top military commander for the West Bank, expand Israeli authority over property law, planning, licensing and enforcement in the occupied territory. They were unveiled just days before a scheduled meeting in Washington between Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and US President Donald Trump.
According to the United Nations, settlement expansion in the West Bank reached its fastest pace last year since monitoring began.
Among the changes is the cancellation of a decades-old ban on the direct sale of West Bank land to Jews, alongside the declassification of local land registry records. Previously, settlers were only permitted to purchase homes through registered companies on land controlled by the Israeli state. The cabinet also voted to repeal a requirement for transaction permits on property purchases, a mechanism designed to limit fraud and illegal transfers.
Israeli ministers defended the moves as a transparency measure. The foreign ministry said the reforms corrected what it described as a “racist distortion” that discriminated against Jews and non-Arab buyers in real estate transactions in what Israel calls Judea and Samaria
Palestinians, however, warned the changes would intensify pressure on landowners to sell and increase the risk of forgery and coercion. Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas described the measures as “dangerous”, accusing Israel of attempting to legalise settlement expansion, land confiscation and the demolition of Palestinian properties, including in areas under Palestinian Authority control. He urged the United States and the UN Security Council to intervene.
Israeli settlement watchdog Peace Now said the cabinet’s decision threatened to undermine the Palestinian Authority and amounted to cancelling existing agreements. The group accused the government of pushing through “de facto annexation” and removing barriers to what it called massive land theft in the West Bank.
International reaction was swift. The UK said it “strongly condemned” the decision and called on Israel to reverse course, warning that any unilateral attempt to alter the geographic or demographic character of Palestinian territory was unacceptable and inconsistent with international law.
Foreign ministers from Egypt, Jordan, the United Arab Emirates, Indonesia, Pakistan, Turkey, Saudi Arabia and Qatar also criticised the move, describing it as an acceleration of illegal annexation efforts and the displacement of Palestinians. They warned that continued expansionist policies in the West Bank would only fuel violence and instability across the region.
