While the world remains focused on the destruction in Gaza and rising regional tensions, the Israeli government is quietly executed A “legal coup” has taken place in the occupied West Bank, drawing condemnation from Palestinians.

Late on Sunday, Israel’s security cabinet approved a series of decisions pushed by Finance Minister Bezarel Smotrich and Defense Minister Israel Katz. The new measures, aimed at expanding Israel’s power in the occupied West Bank, will make it easier to illegally seize Palestinian land.

“We make settlements an integral part of Israeli government policy,” Katz said.

Experts say it would fundamentally change the territory’s civil and legal reality, removing what Israeli ministers say have been decades of “legal obstacles” to the expansion of illegal settlements in the occupied territories.

The Palestinian president called the decision “dangerous” and “a public attempt by Israel to legitimize settlement expansion and land confiscation.” President Abbas’s office called on the United States and the United Nations Security Council to intervene immediately.

On Monday, eight Muslim-majority countries condemn israel Attempts to impose “illegal Israeli sovereignty” in the occupied West Bank.

Palestinian officials and legal experts warned that this package would effectively terminate the 1993 Oslo Accords, strip the Palestinian Authority (PA) of its remaining civil powers and legislate a de facto annexation of the West Bank.

real estate wars

At the heart of the decisions is a strategic attack on land ownership laws that have been in place since Israel occupied Gaza, the West Bank and East Jerusalem in 1967 and subsequently annexed the territories.

Israel’s cabinet approved lifting Jordan’s historic law banning the sale of West Bank land to non-Arabs. At the same time, the government decided to lift the secrecy that had kept land registration records since the days of the Ottoman Empire.

Amir Daoud, documentation director of the Wall and Settlement Resistance Committee, said the move was aimed at creating an “open market” for settlers. By disclosing the identities of Palestinian landowners in registries, settlers and real estate companies can now target specific individuals to pressure, blackmail or induce them to force land sales.

“This government puts settlement expansion at the core of its policy,” Daoud told Al Jazeera Arabic. “By facilitating the flow of Palestinian land to settlers, they are adding a new dimension of apartheid.”

The illegal settlement rally Yesha Council hailed the decision as “the most important in 58 years” and said the Israeli government had now effectively declared that “the land of Israel belongs to the Jewish people”.

Destroy areas A and B

Perhaps the most radical shift in the new directive is to authorize Israeli forces to carry out law enforcement and demolitions in Areas A and B, which are supposed to be under Palestinian civilian and security control under the Oslo Accords.

Area C is completely controlled by Israel and accounts for 60% of the West Bank. More than 700,000 illegal Israeli settlers live in Area C and occupy East Jerusalem, with more than 250 illegal settlements scattered across it.

In order to bypass international law, Israel introduced a new legal mechanism: “Antiquities and Environmental Protection.”

“Israel has eliminated the distinction between Areas A, B and C,” Daoud noted. He explained that the policy was financially prepared three years ago, when the cabinet allocated 120 million shekels (approximately $39 million) to “protect Jewish heritage sites in the West Bank.”

municipal apartheid

The decision also institutionalized a system of “municipal apartheid” in major Palestinian cities, excluding them from Palestinian Authority jurisdiction.

• Hebron: The planning and construction rights of Palestinian municipalities have been stripped and handed over to the Israeli Civil Administration. An “independent municipal entity” would be established for Jewish settlers in the city center to manage their affairs independently, bypassing Palestinian mechanisms entirely.
• Rachel’s Tomb (Bethlehem): The site has been removed from the jurisdiction of the city of Bethlehem and is under direct Israeli management for maintenance and services.

Israel affairs expert Adel Shadid warned that these administrative changes have far-reaching religious and political implications.

“The Ibrahimi Mosque is no longer considered a Muslim holy site managed by the Palestinian Religious Fund,” Shadid told Al Jazeera Arabic. “Their management has been handed over to the Jewish Religious Council of Qiyat Arba. Israel actually Judaizes its identity through law and not just through force”.

In 2010, the Israeli government already Announce The Ibrahimi Mosque in Hebron has been called a “Jewish heritage”.

Pre-empting Trump

The timing of this “law reform” is no accident. Smotrich and Katz pushed for approval of the decisions ahead of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s upcoming visit to the United States, according to Novaya Gazeta.

Analysts believe Israel’s far-right government is racing against time to establish irreversible “facts on the ground” ahead of October’s Knesset, or Knesset, elections and are concerned that U.S. President Donald Trump may change his stance on annexation.

Former EU adviser James Moran believes that the intention is clear.

“Smotrich was quoted as saying: ‘We will continue to kill the idea of ​​a Palestinian state,'” Moran told Al Jazeera Arabic in Brussels. “This decision demonstrates absolutely no intention to seek a just solution”.

Netanyahu has repeatedly stated that he opposes the establishment of a sovereign Palestinian state. He worked to undermine the Oslo Accords, which called for a so-called two-state solution. Several Western governments, including France and Britain, recognized Palestinian statehood last year. But they have done nothing to prevent Israel from expanding illegal settlements on Palestinian land – the biggest stumbling block to achieving a Palestinian state.

Moran believes that international condemnation is no longer enough. “Now is the time for sanctions,” he said, suggesting that the EU should consider suspending its trade agreement with Israel because a third of Israel’s trade is with the bloc.

violent outburst

On the ground, the cabinet decision was interpreted by the settler movement as a “green light” for complete impunity.

Al Jazeera Arabic’s Hebron correspondent Muntaser Nassar reported that violence surged immediately after the announcement. “What happens on the ground is the true reflection of these decisions,” Nassar said.

Within hours of approval:

• Settlers attacked the Rashaed Mosque in east Bethlehem, stealing its contents and causing serious damage.
• In Baninaim, east of Hebron, settlers brutally beat an 80-year-old Palestinian disabled man.
• Demolition notices were given to Palestinians in Behrin (east of Hebron), while demolition took place in Bedouin communities in the northern Jordan Valley.

Dalal Iricat, a professor of diplomacy and conflict resolution, warned that the situation has gone beyond political manipulation.

“We are witnessing the institutional and legal annexation of the West Bank,” Iricat told Al Jazeera Arabic.

“Israel is imposing the reality of ‘Greater Israel’ and apartheid. If the international community does not move from statements to action, situations on the ground will explode.”