Despite Trump’s opposition to annexation, Israel has taken steps to expand control over the West Bank

Avatar Yankovitch, a Jewish settler, clears land for new homes near the West Bank settlement of Almon last month. Photo / Heidi Levine, for The Washington Post

Israel has moved aggressively in recent days to deepen its control over the occupied West Bank, unilaterally adopting policies that analysts say represent a major shift towards annexation and appear to defy United States President Donald Trump, who has said he opposes annexation but has not publicly pushed back on the escalating Israeli measures.

This month, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s security cabinet, in a closed-door meeting, adopted measures to make it easier for settlers to purchase land and circumvent the Palestinian Authority in areas it has controlled since a 1995 agreement under the Oslo accords.

The move was widely condemned in the Arab world and globally as a violation of international law and an undoing of decades-old regional security agreements.

After that decision, the White House issued a statement reiterating Trump’s opposition to annexation, and the US President emphasised his position in an interview with Axios.

“I am against annexation,” Trump said, adding: “We have enough things to think about now. We don’t need to be dealing with the West Bank.”

Both Trump and the White House statement brushed over his opposition to annexation in vague terms, and neither referenced the accelerating measures by Israel to expand settlements.

Mourners carry the body of Mohammad Na'san, 14, who was shot dead by Israeli forces, in the West Bank village of al-Mughayyir on January 17. Photo / Heidi Levine, for The Washington Post

Since then, Netanyahu visited Trump at the White House last week, and on Monday (NZT), after returning to Israel, his Cabinet voted to restart a process of land registration, suspended since 1968, in a part of the West Bank known as Area C.

Experts say that move will probably result in Israel’s taking permanent control of swathes of territory as it designates it “state land”.

For many years, Israel has pursued a policy of creeping annexation by supporting settlers and using the military to defend Israelis in the West Bank under any circumstances.

But the recent escalating measures represent a forceful push towards annexation, and they’ve been met with seeming indifference in Washington as Trump focuses on his peace plan for Gaza and the possibility of war with Iran.

Neither the State Department nor the White House has issued statements on the recent land registration measure. United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres condemned the move and called on Israel to reverse it, saying in a statement that “the current trajectory on the ground is eroding the prospect for the two-State solution”.

Nihal Na'san, the mother of Mohammad Na'san, 14, is comforted by her daughter as mourners gather at the family’s home for Na'san's funeral on January 17. Photo / Heidi Levine, for The Washington Post

“Such measures, including Israel’s continued presence in the Occupied Palestinian Territory, are not only destabilising, but, as recalled by the International Court of Justice, unlawful,” UN spokesman Stephane Dujarric said.

The Israeli Foreign Ministry has described the actions as vital to “bringing order” to the issue of land registration and accused the Palestinian Authority of violating agreements by conducting its own land registration in areas that are supposed to be under full Israeli military control.

Under the new Israeli procedure, Israel will publicly designate areas to undergo registration, in which anyone who has a claim to the land must prove their ownership - to Israeli standards - or that land will automatically be reverted to Israeli state property.

The meeting between Trump and Netanyahu last Thursday focused on Iran and the Gaza Strip, according to a person familiar with the details who spoke on the condition of anonymity because they were not authorised to speak with the media. The West Bank was not brought up, the person said.

Analysts and some Arab officials say that absent direct US pressure, there is a low likelihood of Israel changing course.

The Ibrahimi Mosque, known to Jews as the Cave of the Patriarchs, seen from the Muslim cemetery in the divided West Bank city of Hebron this month. Photo / Heidi Levine, for The Washington Post

In the meantime, Palestinians continue to face an ever-quickening transformation of the West Bank, which, in the shadow of war on Gaza, has seen new Jewish settlements approved at record rates - and more than 1300 Palestinians killed by settlers or Israeli forces - since Netanyahu took office in 2022, according to UN statistics.

Now, many say they fear not only being displaced, but losing all legal claim to their land.

Many international lawyers and even some Israeli Cabinet ministers who supported the measures say they are a clear reach towards seizing territory.

“We are continuing the revolution of settlement and our hold on all regions of our land,” Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich said. “The State of Israel is taking responsibility for its land and acting according to the law with transparency and determination.”

Deputy Prime Minister Yariv Levin, who is also Justice Minister, said: “The Land of Israel belongs to the People of Israel. The Government of Israel is committed to deepening its hold on all its parts, and this decision is an expression of that commitment.”

A Palestinian woman walks by Jewish settlements in Hebron on Tuesday. Photo / Heidi Levine, for The Washington Post

The coalition propping up Netanyahu, who is facing an election this year, includes settlers who are part of a large voter base in favour of annexing the West Bank altogether. The Knesset overwhelmingly approved a non-binding motion last year to annex the territory.

Critics said the measures would strip Palestinians of ownership rights and leave them with little or no recourse.

“The Government’s decision on land settlement in the West Bank is a mega land grab of Palestinian property,” the Israeli anti-settlement organisation Peace Now said in a statement.

“Land registration will result in the transfer of ownership of the vast majority of Area C to the state, leaving Palestinians with no practical ability to realise their ownership rights.

“We warn President Trump: Netanyahu is deceiving you. You said you would not allow annexation, but he is carrying it out right under your nose,” Peace Now said in its statement.

Israel has faced a chorus of international criticism over the past week, including from key European allies, to reverse the measure, including from the European Union, the United Kingdom, Australia and a host of Arab and Islamic states.

Sheikh Saeed Al Omour, 60, near his home in Khirbet a-Rakeez in the southern Hebron Hills of the West Bank. His right leg was amputated after he was shot last April by a Jewish settler. Photo / Heidi Levine, for The Washington Post

The EU went a step further and reiterated that sanctions are “still on the table” as a possible response.

Area C refers to approximately 60% of the West Bank, which, per the Oslo accords, is under total Israeli military control. The Israeli Cabinet decision said that 15% of Area C would be registered within the next five years.

The escalating measures in the West Bank and the threat of population displacement have prompted a wave of national security concerns among US allies in the Middle East.

In a statement Wednesday, the foreign ministers of Saudi Arabia, Jordan, Egypt and the United Arab Emirates, alongside Turkey, Indonesia and Pakistan, reiterated their “categorical rejection of all unilateral measures aimed at altering the legal, demographic, and historical status of the Occupied Palestinian Territory”.

“Israel’s decision regarding lands in the West Bank undermines the peace process at its core,” said one former Egyptian official briefed on the Gaza ceasefire negotiations, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss sensitive negotiations.

Palestinian women near the West Bank Jewish settlement of Ma'ale Mikhmas on December 20, 2025. Photo / Heidi Levine, for The Washington Post

“A decisive American position is required to prevent the situation in the West Bank from escalating.”

The British Foreign Office said it will chair a UN Security Council meeting on the Middle East focusing on the West Bank and Gaza ceasefire.

“The expected pressure from international parties has fallen short. Israel appears to have waited to see the reactions, which turned out to be weak and vague,” said Akram Atallah, a Palestinian political commentator.

“The European Union is preoccupied with its own issues, and the US Administration has not pressured Israel. This was clear in the recent, hastily arranged meeting between President Trump and Netanyahu, where no pressure was applied to stop Netanyahu from moving forward.”

Lawyers say it is almost impossible for Palestinians to meet the ownership standards required by Israel. Even those with property documents fear generations of their families’ land will finally be stripped away.

Kamal Jaradat, 54, owns land in the al-Addaysa area of Area C. It had been planted with almond and olive trees, like so many other plots in the West Bank, but every time they tried to cultivate the land in recent years, the trees were uprooted by settlers.

Jaradat has been trying to prove that he is the lawful owner through the Israeli court system for more than two decades but said his ownership deeds are not recognised by Israel.

“We possess ownership documents proving that the land belongs to us, inherited from my grandfather, who also inherited it from his father,” Jaradat said. “Israel’s legal control over these areas means we lose all our property and sources of livelihood.”

Michael Sfard, a Tel-Aviv based international human rights lawyer, said Palestinians are systemically prevented from participating fairly in the land registration process - from members of the diaspora not being physically in the territory to the widespread problem of people not having access to land ownership documents.

“Unfortunately, there is a tendency, and it is not only Trump’s, to expect that annexation will happen in a pompous ceremony with a ribbon-cutting and historical declarations,” Sfard said.

“The truth is that annexation can happen bureaucratically, in windowless offices, in a supposedly boring manner.”

“This thing passes under the radar of global diplomacy and politics that do not understand that this is what is happening,” Sfard added.

“Trump said he does not want annexation, and I believe him, but he does not know that annexation is happening.”

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