Palestinian politicians and analysts have warned against what they describe as an Israeli plan to illegally annex the occupied West Bank by implementing a series of decisions and actions under the current right-wing government. Israel’s Defence Minister Israel Katz, on Friday, ordered the military to prepare a plan for transferring civilian law enforcement in the occupied West Bank to the Israeli police.
According to the Israeli newspaper Haaretz, the decision follows criticism over the army’s handling of Israeli settlers who besieged a Palestinian home in the village of Qusra. Katz justified the shift, saying, “The army’s role is to combat Palestinian terrorism … and not chase hilltop youth.” The Defence Ministry indicated the police would establish a dedicated force to handle these civilian matters.
However, Palestinian officials and a wide array of political experts warn this structural shift represents a dangerous acceleration of illegal annexation, apartheid, and ethnic cleansing. Mustafa Barghouti, secretary-general of the Palestinian National Initiative, told Al Jazeera that the settlers are the “spearhead in the process of annexation and Judaisation.”
He drew direct historical parallels to the mass displacement of Palestinians, stating, “They repeat what the Zionist terror gangs did in 1948, like the Haganah and the Stern Gang.” Barghouti warned that placing security in the hands of National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir and illegal Israeli settlements under Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich amounts to “handing over the West Bank to the settlers.”
He stressed that this is an open war on the population, adding, “The actual ruler in the West Bank is the known fascist terrorist Smotrich.” He added that these militias carry out roles that “require evading any discipline, rules, or laws” to achieve a “creeping, gradual annexation to make it a reality.”
Analysts argue that replacing military occupation law with domestic civilian law fundamentally alters the legal reality of the territory. Mohanad Mustafa, an academic and researcher in Israeli affairs, told Al Jazeera that the decision legally erases the borders. “The government is dealing with the West Bank not as an occupied territory,” Mustafa said.
He explained that by transferring power to a civilian police force, “this means that the government has annexed the West Bank.” Even Israeli members of parliament have accused the army of being complicit in this shift, noting that the move absolves the military of its obligations under international law, placing enforcement under Ben-Gvir.
Mustafa warned that Ben-Gvir, who previously oversaw the demolition of thousands of Arab homes in Israel, will now command the police to “support the settlers more and more and push them more to take over the land.” The dual legal framework resulting from this shift has drawn sharp international and local criticism.
“The subject has bypassed the issue of annexation to a post-annexation phase and creating a reality where the Palestinian finds himself forced to think about migration,” said Adel Shadid, an expert in Israeli affairs. Shadid dismissed recent US condemnations of settler violence as mere theatre to “mislead global public opinion.”
He argued that the underlying project has full US backing, noting that “all that is happening now is an American-Israeli plan and there is harmony between the two right-wing administrations in Washington and here in Israel.”
Andrew Whitley, a former United Nations official and Chair of Trustees of the Britain Palestine Project, stressed that the planned transfer is “completely illegal” and urged immediate global intervention. He told Al Jazeera that the “Palestinian state is disappearing before our eyes,” demanding that the international community move beyond rhetoric.
“We have to do much more than just wring our hands and complain that governments are not doing anything about this,” Whitley said, calling for concrete sanctions to halt the rapid erasure of the Palestinian presence. The Palestinian Authority and Hamas have both condemned the order as a dangerous step toward imposing de facto annexation and providing cover for settler violence.
Hussein al-Sheikh, secretary-general of the Palestine Liberation Organization’s executive committee, described the move as a blatant violation of international agreements and an attempt to “impose Israeli law and soverei
He noted that the settlers have evolved into “fascist militia formations” that perform the state’s dirty work.
“These are fascist militia formations, and there are similar precedents in many countries that were ruled by fascism, whether in Spain, Italy, Germany, or even Chile,” Abu Ghosh said.
Palestinian leadership strongly condemned the mandate.
Hussein al-Sheikh, secretary-general of the Palestine Liberation Organization’s executive committee, described the move as a blatant violation of international agreements and an attempt to “impose Israeli law and sovereignty over the occupied West Bank, including East Jerusalem, and to entrench the illegal annexation of Palestinian land”.
Analysts stress that relieving the military of its duties essentially deputises settler violence, turning them into an armed extension of the state.
Shadi al-Shurafa, a researcher in Israeli affairs, told Al Jazeera that the situation is a textbook definition of segregation.
“We are facing an application of an overt racist apartheid system in the West Bank,” al-Shurafa said, noting it involves one regime operating with two entirely different laws based on ethnicity.
He added that the ultimate goal of the current government is carrying out complete ethnic cleansing and trapping Palestinians in “isolated cantons and isolated Bantustans”.
