(Washington, D.C., Feb, 9, 2026) — In response to the Israeli Security Cabinet's approval of sweeping measures that remove nearly all restraints and controls on illegal settlement expansion in the occupied West Bank, including repealing a decades-old ban on private land purchases and expanding the Israeli military's demolition powers into areas previously under Palestinian control, DAWN issues the following statement:
"Israel is no longer pretending, it is moving full steam toward irreversibly annexing the West Bank while the Trump administration continues writing blank checks in weapons and diplomatic cover," said Raed Jarrar, advocacy director at DAWN. "Three days before Netanyahu arrives in Washington, his government has effectively declared sovereignty over Palestinian land. The United States is not a bystander to this. It is the primary enabler."
"This decision eviscerates any meaningful distinction between formal, de jure annexation, which President Trump said he would block, and Israel's decades' long process of de facto annexation," said Michael Schaeffer Omer-Man, director for Israel-Palestine at DAWN. "World leaders need to wake up and see that while they have clung to the memory of the Oslo process Israel has been diligently pouring the foundations for permanent apartheid rule, a process it has now nearly completed."
"What we are looking at now is one state between the river and the sea, governed by an apartheid and occupation regime that rules over millions of Palestinians with no rights, no vote, and no recourse," said Jarrar." The world responded to that reality in South Africa. It must do the same here."
Background:
The secret decisions, described by Israeli media as the most significant changes to the West Bank's legal status since 1967, were announced days before Netanyahu's scheduled meeting with President Trump on Wednesday. Under the Oslo Accords, Areas A and B, approximately 40% of the West Bank containing all major Palestinian cities, were designated for Palestinian administrative control. Today's measures extend Israeli demolition and other major enforcement powers into those areas. The Security Cabinet decisions also removed some of the few remaining procedural and legal constraints on settlers acquiring Palestinian land through fraud, bribery, coercion, and in strategically or even religiously sensitive areas. Because Israel still technically rules the West Bank under a military regime, the Security Cabinet's decisions will still need to be codified by the Israeli military commander.
Israeli Finance Minister Smotrich stated following the decision on Sunday that, "We will continue to extinguish the idea of a Palestinian state." The Yesha Council, which represents West Bank settlers, praised the decisions, declaring "the Israeli government today declared, de facto, that the Land of Israel belongs to the Jewish people."
Trump stated in October 2025 that he would not allow Israeli annexation of the West Bank, saying: "It won't happen because I gave my word to the Arab countries… Israel would lose all of its support from the United States if that happened." The governments of Qatar, Jordan, the United Arab Emirates, Saudi Arabia, Egypt, Indonesia, and Turkey all condemned Israel's latest moves on Monday as "accelerating attempts at its illegal annexation and the displacement of the Palestinian people." The Palestinian Authority condemned them as "the practical implementation of annexation and displacement plans."
