Palestinian Authority security forces deploy in the Jenin Palestinian refugee camp in the occupied West Bank on Jan. 18, 2025. (Credit: Jaafar Ashtiyeh/AFP)
When Donald Trump presented his 2020 plan to end the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, it included Israel’s annexation of parts of the occupied West Bank, a controversial proposal that has resurfaced with his reelection.
In his previous tenure as prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu pushed for partial annexation of the West Bank but backed down in 2020 under international pressure and after a deal to normalize relations with the United Arab Emirates.
With Trump returning to the White House, pro-annexation Israelis hope to revive the proposal.
Far-right Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich, a settler in the Palestinian territory, recently declared that 2025 would be “the year of sovereignty in Judea and Samaria,” using the biblical names Israel applies to the West Bank.
Excluding east Jerusalem, which Israel annexed, along with its 200,000 Jewish residents, the West Bank is home to about 490,000 Israelis in settlements considered illegal under international law. Around 3 million Palestinians live in the territory.
‘Make a decision’
Israel Ganz, head of the Yesha Council, an umbrella organization for West Bank settlement councils, argued that the current situation could not continue.
“The State of Israel must make a decision,” he said.
Without sovereignty, he added, “no one is responsible for infrastructure, roads, water and electricity.”
“We will do everything in our power to apply Israeli sovereignty, at least over Area C,” he said, referring to the portion of the West Bank under exclusive Israeli control. Area C covers 60 percent of the territory and includes most Israeli settlements.
Even before taking office, Trump and his incoming administration have made several moves raising pro-annexation Israelis’ hopes.
The president-elect has nominated pro-settlement Baptist minister Mike Huckabee as ambassador to Israel. His nominee for secretary of state, Marco Rubio, declared this would be “the most pro-Israel administration in American history” and that it would lift U.S. sanctions on settlers.
Eugene Kontorovich, of the conservative Misgav Institute think tank, said the Middle East had changed significantly since Trump’s first term.
The war against Hamas in Gaza, Israel’s strikes on Hezbollah in Lebanon, and the fall of Syrian President Bashar Assad — all allies of Israel’s arch-enemy Iran — have reshaped the region, he said.
‘Nightmare scenario’
Even before Trump’s November victory, NGOs had denounced what they called de facto annexation, citing a surge in land seizures and changes to Israel’s bureaucratic and administrative control over the West Bank.
De jure annexation would go even further.
Israel currently cannot expropriate private West Bank land, but “once annexed, Israeli law would allow it. That’s a major change,” said Aviv Tatarsky of the Israeli anti-settlement group Ir Amim.
He noted that if Israel annexes Area C, Palestinians there would likely not be granted residency rights.
East Jerusalem Palestinians received permits allowing freedom of movement within Israel and access to Israeli courts. West Bank Palestinians, by contrast, can appeal only to Israel’s supreme court, not its lower courts.
Tatarsky warned that for Palestinians, annexation would be “a nightmare scenario.”
Over 90 percent of West Bank Palestinians live in Areas A and B, which are under full or partial Palestinian Authority control. However, Tatarsky said their daily lives depend heavily on Area C, the only contiguous part of the West Bank, which contains most agricultural land and fragments Areas A and B into hundreds of enclaves.