Near the village of Al Zaim in the centre of the occupied West Bank, the rapid changes befalling Palestinians in the area – road construction, checkpoints and expanding hilltop settlements – could be seen as far as the Dead Sea.
Just down the road on the border between East Jerusalem and the rest of the West Bank, Israeli municipal authorities were planning to demolish sections of more than 100 private properties in the bitterly contested area of Bustan.
Police clashed with a small number of locals as construction machinery rolled, ready to carry on the demolitions that have gone on for months.
A full Israeli annexation of the territory is in progress, and Palestinians can feel it already. On Sunday, Israel’s cabinet approved a change to the legal status of the occupied West Bank, which clears the way for an expansion of the settler movement.
Energy Minister Eli Cohen said the measures amounted to Israel acquiring "de facto sovereignty" in the territory, during an interview on Tuesday.
“Changing the legal status of the West Bank is the most dangerous development since the Nakba,” Bassam Al Salhi, secretary general of the Palestinian People’s Party, told The National on Tuesday from the Palestinian capital, Ramallah.
“This makes what happened in Gaza applicable to the West Bank as well, which is extremely dangerous.”
Barely six weeks into the year, Palestinians in the occupied West Bank and East Jerusalem are wondering if 2026 will be one of the most catastrophic moments for them since the state of Israel was founded in 1948.
In a matter of weeks, Israel has launched large military operations in major West Bank cities, begun construction of a bypass that Israeli settlers call “sovereignty road” and demolished dozens of homes.
Members of the League of Arab States will hold an emergency meeting on Wednesday to discuss "avenues for Arab and international action", state news agency Wam reported.
All Palestinians and anti-occupation Israeli campaigners The National has spoken to since Sunday agree that Israel’s new approach to the occupied territories is a disaster for the prospect of Palestinian statehood, an aspiration that most of the international community still says they support.
“It’s definitely a major change and its consequences could be dramatic,” said Aviv Tatarsky, a field researcher at NGO IR Amim.
“We’re seeing a full-on apartheid regime that actually wants to ethnically cleanse the West Bank. This can really go very, very far. Especially when you look at the dynamics. It’s not that Israel is taking one or two steps that we’re critical of. It’s ongoing, it never ends,” he added.
“This government, its ministers are explicitly saying that what happened in the Gaza Strip needs to happen in the West Bank. This is a serious move towards that.”
The changes announced on Sunday have three core elements, said Lior Amihai, executive director of Israeli NGO Peace Now. The first is to make it possible for settlers to “almost without limitation” buy property throughout the West Bank, including in areas that the Palestinian Authority fully or partially administered under the Oslo Accords.
The second element is to declassify land ownership registries, a move that would open the door for settlers to defraud, forge documents and blackmail Palestinian owners in pursuit of acquiring property to control larger parts of the West Bank. The third element is stripping Palestinian bodies of control at religious sites in Hebron and Bethlehem.
“It is a handover of the West Bank to settlers under the protection of the occupation army – an annexation process disguised under Israeli legal terminology,” said Mr Al Salhi.
Although it is too early to assess the impact of the new measures, any view of the occupied West Bank gives an indication of how quickly things are moving in favour of settlers.
Across the region on Tuesday, the picture was one of intense uncertainty, even as nations throughout the Muslim world, Europe and now the US call for Israeli restraint.
Palestinians do not believe these calls will be heeded. Walid Al Kailani, Hamas’s media official in Lebanon, told The National that the developments of the past few days are “proof that Israel does not want stability.”
“There is a broader plan targeting the Palestinian cause, involving the displacement and expulsion of Palestinians,” he said.
“We are approaching the month of Ramadan, and there will be friction with settlers and soldiers during prayers, which could lead to further escalation.”
