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Israeli measures to tighten its control of the West Bank have prompted a global backlash, including a signal from Washington restating the Trump administration’s opposition to annexation of the occupied territory.
Announcing the measures, which involve extending Israeli control in areas that are currently under Palestinian administration, Israel’s defence minister, Israel Katz, made clear they were aimed at strengthening Israeli settlements in the West Bank and pre-empting the emergence of an independent sovereign Palestine.
The measures, passed by the Israeli security cabinet, also make it easier to find out who owns land in the West Bank and for non-Arabs to buy property in the territory. It was not initially clear when the new rules would come into effect but they require no further approval.
“We will continue to kill the idea of a Palestinian state,” Katz said in a joint statement with the finance minister, Bezalel Smotrich.
The EU called the measures “another step in the wrong direction” and said sanctions were “still on the table”, including the possible suspension of some parts of the EU-Israel trade agreement.
A joint statement by a group of Arab and Islamic states, which will be central to Donald Trump’s hopes of implementing a peace plan in Gaza, said they “condemned in the strongest terms the illegal Israeli decisions and measures aimed at imposing unlawful Israeli sovereignty”.
The signatories – including Saudi Arabia, Jordan, Egypt, Qatar, the United Arab Emirates, Pakistan, Indonesia, and Turkey – said the new measures would “inflame violence, deepen the conflict and endanger regional stability and security”.
The UK said it “strongly condemns” the Israeli measures. “Any unilateral attempt to alter the geographic or demographic makeup of Palestine is wholly unacceptable and would be inconsistent with international law,” a UK statement said. “We call on Israel to reverse these decisions immediately.”
The outrage at the Israeli measures came on the eve of a planned White House meeting between the Israeli prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, and Donald Trump on Wednesday. The administration made no formal comment, but a White House official issued a statement to reporters indicating its opposition.
“President Trump has clearly stated that he does not support Israel annexing the West Bank,” the statement said. “A stable West Bank keeps Israel secure and is in line with this administration’s goal to achieve peace in the region.”
The new measures are wide ranging and aimed directly at authority and control of territory in the West Bank. They repeal a law dating back to the era of Jordanian rule before 1967, which banned the sale of land to non-Arabs.
They also transfer authority over building licences in Hebron from the Palestinian-run municipality to the Israeli civil administration, the army’s occupation authority in the territory. The transfer could violate a 1997 Hebron protocol, which divided the city into two sectors.
The Jewish settlement around Rachel’s Tomb in Bethlehem is also transferred from Palestinian governance to direct Israeli control.
The Palestinian Authority’s control over its designated parts of the West Bank has been severely weakened over past decades by lack of money, aggressive Israeli obstruction and settlement-building, as well as its own corruption. It issued a statement in its capital in Ramallah warning that the new Israeli measures were aimed at “deepening attempts to annex the occupied West Bank”.
