Smotrich’s West Bank plan isn’t killing the two-state solution. Israel buried it long ago

Israeli policemen stand guard near the settlement of Ma’ale Adumim, in a land corridor known as E1, outside Jerusalem in the occupied West Bank

Becca Strober writes in Haaretz on 19 August 2025:

Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich, who is also a second minister in the defense ministry, announced on Thursday that the construction plan for the E1 portion of the West Bank is going to be approved.

Many human rights groups and the diplomatic community were quick in their condemnation of the move, which would practically cut the West Bank into two separate parts, north and south. While they are right that this plan kills a two-state solution, they are missing one crucial fact: The West Bank is already annexed.

This settlement construction does not change the reality of the West Bank, it merely more accurately reflects what is already true. Those focusing on this one policy are missing the wider picture.

Last year, almost all governing power in the West Bank, except for those pertaining to security were transferred from the army to the government. They did so by anointing Smotrich second minister in the defense ministry, a job which until then was non-existent.  In the words of Adv. Michael Sfard at the time, “the move effectively anointed Smotrich de facto governor of the West Bank” and declared it de jure annexation.

Those critical of this most recent E1 plan as the assassination of the two-state solution have been asleep at the wheel, not only for the last year, but for well over a decade.

Take Area B of the West Bank, where according to the Oslo Accords the Palestinian Authority held administrative control and Israel security control, for example. Smotrich effectively canceled much of the remnants of Oslo by claiming civil jurisdiction over the area: The Civil Administration has now both demolished Palestinian homes in the area and we are witnessing the establishment of Israeli outposts in those same areas.

Israel took full control of land registry in Area C, allowing, for the first time since 1948, registration of land under Israeli ownership – thereby permanently removing Palestinians as owners. This year alone, the government invested the equivalent of another $1.9 billion in West Bank road infrastructure, which will serve settlements and Israelis.

The process of ethnically cleansing Area C of Palestinians has moved full swing ahead – with over 70 Israeli outposts established and 50 Palestinian communities expelled by settler violence since this government came into power. Israel approved 24,338 new settlement units in the West Bank thus far this year – more than double what it approved in 2024.

The two state-solution has been politically dead for decades. This government just removed all pretense through its actions.

And still, many politicians and diplomats refer to the two-state solution as though it’s still feasible, as though Oslo was cryogenically frozen for 30 years.

But those with their feet on the ground know the truth: We live in one state. It includes Israel and all of its occupied territories. The state maintains an illegal, indefinite occupation over these lands, only further solidified by plans like this, and in a clear apartheid structure in which the 7 million Israeli Jews enjoy full civil and political rights regardless of where their address is while 7 million Palestinians are fragmented and their rights denied based on their addresses and the color of their ID card.

More than a solution, the Oslo era created a status quo, and we are now witnessing its end. Instead, we have fully entered into a new era defined by Smotrich’s “decisive plan,” which he outlined in 2017 as a young politician and is now seeing through using his vast, unrestrained authority as a minister.

His plan does not end at annexation, but rather lays out three options for West Bank Palestinians: cram into incontiguous Palestinian cities and live without political rights under Israeli rule; leave to another country and receive payment; or face unrelenting violence, both state-sponsored and vigilante.

Israelis need to recognize the reality of where we already are, a one apartheid state, and the reality of where we are squarely headed – toward mass ethnic cleansing in the West Bank, in addition to Israel’s genocide in Gaza.

In this sense, perhaps Smotrich’s E1 recognition is actually doing us a favor, as we can finally put the nail in the long-sitting two-state coffin and bury it.  Instead, we need the world to join us in fighting apartheid and demand a just future for all between the river and the sea to live in genuine, legal equality and self-determination in one state for Israelis and Palestinians alike.

Becca Strober runs the instagram page becca.explains.the.occupation and is a former senior director in Breaking the Silence and current head of the board at Sadaka-Reut.

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