Israel just started legalizing its annexation of the West Bank. Here’s what that means.
Israeli bulldozers working along Road-60, north of Ramallah
Qassam Muaddi writes in Mondoweiss on 11 February 2026:
Israel just erased Palestinian existence from the West Bank by law, and it’s not an overstatement.
It has so far been commonplace to say that Israel’s annexation of the West Bank exists in all but name, since a state of de facto annexation was being established on the ground even though the West Bank was still regarded as legally separate. That changed on Sunday.
While Israel did not announce a de jure annexation of the West Bank, it has laid the legal groundwork for it. The Israeli government’s security cabinet made a series of decisions on Sunday that changed the legal status quo in the West Bank, dramatically shrinking the already limited authority of the self-governing body known as the Palestinian Authority (PA). This signals the practical beginning of a formal annexation of the West Bank — starting with specific areas.
The bill conferring these authorities to Israel was approved by the cabinet in its final draft, and is to be voted on by the Israeli Knesset. When it passes, Israel will have the authority to impose Israeli law in areas of the West Bank that had been under PA control, especially laws regulating building permits. The bill, originally introduced in 2023 and known as “the Antiquities Bill,” concerns dozens of Palestinian historical sites in the West Bank. In addition, the Israeli cabinet decided on Sunday to allow Israelis to purchase real estate in those areas, paving the way for future Israeli settlement in Palestinian demographic centers.
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‘Most important’ settler decision since 1967
The move has been called by the Israeli settlements’ council as “the most important since 1967,” as it takes Israel’s annexation of the West Bank beyond an unrecognized practical reality to something legally entrenched. The decision also turns the PA into little more than a group of municipal bodies connected to a central administration, stripped of any limited state-like powers that it has so far claimed to wield in the sanctuaries of Area A and Area B.
This means that Israel has officially removed any collective existence of Palestinians in the West Bank, administrative or political, from its legal framework. Legally speaking, some areas of the West Bank populated by Palestinians can now be considered a part of Israel proper.