The annexation of the West Bank has long been the stated goal of Israel’s right-wing: in the words of Likud’s 1977 election manifesto: “Between the sea and the Jordan there will only be Israeli sovereignty.”
Until now the Civil Administration, a branch of the Israeli army, has been responsible for Area C, the 60% of the West Bank which, under Oslo, is “temporarily” under full Israeli administrative and security control.
It has been part of the fiction that the occupation, too, is only temporary.
Now, under the aegis of extreme right minister Bezalel Smotrich responsibility for dozens of bylaws has been given to civilian officials led by Smotrich at the defence ministry, as Peter Beaumont reports for the Guardian.
As Mairav Zonszein, a senior analyst for Israel-Palestine at Crisis Group, has said: “The big story is that this is no longer ‘creeping annexation’ or ‘de facto annexation’, it is actual annexation.”
And Haaretz reports on a speech by Smotrich to settlers in which he is quite explicit: “Its intended goal is annexation of the West Bank with much less attention.”
Annexation in all but name… Why are the British and US governments so eerily silent on this?