In the West Bank, new Israeli regulations stoke Palestinian fears of annexation

While previous American administrations have condemned Israeli expansion in the West Bank, neither the White House or the State Department have issued statements on the new measures and it is unclear whether the issue came up when Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu met with President Donald Trump last week in Washington, their seventh meeting in the past year.

In an interview with Axios last week, Trump said that he was opposed to annexation, although he didn’t directly address the new rules. “We have enough things to think about now,” he said. “We don’t need to be dealing with the West Bank.”

Netanyahu, who is facing an election later this year, deems the establishment of any Palestinian state a security threat and his ruling coalition, which has a large voter base in the settlements, includes many members who want Israel to annex the West Bank.

Far-right politicians like Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich “certainly want to use this in the Israeli domestic political sphere with their base,” Michael Koplow, the chief policy officer at the Israel Policy Forum, an American organization that works towards a two-state solution, or the establishment of an independent Palestinian state alongside the state of Israel.

A member of the settler community who has long claimed the West Bank for Israel, Smotrich’s Religious Zionism Party currently holds seven seats in the Israeli Knesset or parliament, and he is “trying to do as much as he can while he’s still in a position to do so,” Koplow added. A poll published Wednesday by Maagar Mohot and Stat-Net polls projected that the party would win no seats if elections were held today.

Smotrich has vowed to double the settler population in the West Bank and in December he was part of the cabinet which approved a proposal for 19 new settlements in the territory. Israel is also preparing to build a controversial settlement project near Jerusalem, known as E1, which would effectively sever the northern and southern West Bank.

Along with the settlement expansion, the United Nations recorded over 1,800 attacks by Jewish settlers that caused casualties or property damage in 2025, the highest daily average since it began recording settler attacks in 2006.

It’s one reason why news of the new cabinet decisions seemed to have gone largely unnoticed by the few people who strolled last week through Hebron’s Old City, which is designated as a UNESCO World Heritage Site and borders the Al Ibrahimi Mosque, known to Jews as the Cave of the Patriarchs.

That may change as under the newly approved powers, Israel has said it will take over planning authority at the site and other areas of archeological interest.

“Everyone has heard about the new law, but in reality, people were already experiencing it firsthand because it was already in effect,” Dudin said. “Apartheid now exists in every sense of the word.”

Nearby apartment blocks occupied by Jewish settlers towered over several Old City streets, which were covered by nets meant to catch the rocks and debris the settlers have thrown on the Palestinian pedestrians below.

But Shawamla, the baker, said he was determined to carry on with the business his father started, aided by the flour and semolina Dudin’s governorate gives Old City shops to keep them afloat.

“If institutions continue to support us, we will keep working until our very last breath,” he said. “We will go on, even with our last strength, to preserve our birthplace — our shops. We live here. We were born in the Old City.”