Palestine: The West Bank, Jerusalem, Annexation and the Refugees

Summary

Israeli land registration, settlement expansion and Al-Aqsa prayer changes are entrenching control of the West Bank and Jerusalem, UN and rights monitors say, as settler violence hits record levels and UNRWA nears collapse.

What it argues

1. Annexation advances by law

   Israel's cabinet approved a West Bank land registry for Area C in February 2026, funded with $78 million over four years. The Knesset declared in July 2025 that the West Bank is "an inseparable part of the Land of Israel." Ministers Smotrich and Levin called the registry a deepening of Israel's "grip" on the territory. Administrative and legislative steps are substituting for a formal annexation declaration.

2. Jerusalem's edges pushed west

   Peace Now says a planned 6,000-unit "neighborhood" of the Adam settlement would for the first time since 1967 extend Jerusalem's effective boundary into the West Bank. A new committee is advancing a 1968 expropriation order to displace Palestinian homes and shops on Chain Gate Street in the Old City. Smotrich ordered the Bedouin village of Khan al-Ahmar demolished to clear land for the 3,401-unit E-1 settlement. Settlement planning is reshaping Jerusalem's boundaries and severing it from the rest of the West Bank, planners say.

3. UNRWA on the edge

   Israel's January 2025 ban blocked UNRWA's work in Gaza and the West Bank; in January 2026 Israeli forces demolished its East Jerusalem headquarters and raised the Israeli flag over the site. Outgoing chief Lazzarini says the agency's survival now depends on the Gaza peace plan's implementation and a genuine political process for Palestinians. More than 390 UNRWA staff have been killed in Gaza; Lazzarini says Israel has no jurisdiction over East Jerusalem, citing the ICJ. UNRWA's fate is now bound to whether a political process for Palestinians actually resumes.

4. Legal tools consolidate control

   Arab Center Washington DC says Israel's Area C land registration confers legal title that is difficult to reverse, replacing occupation with permanent control. Palestinians must produce decades-old Ottoman, British or Jordanian documents and prove continuous cultivation; unclaimed land defaults to the state. New measures extend Israeli enforcement powers into Areas A and B and transfer Hebron's Old City planning authority and sites like the Ibrahimi Mosque to Israeli bodies. What is framed as technical registry and administration functions, these sources argue, as legal annexation.

5. ICC warrants loom

   Smotrich says he ordered Khan al-Ahmar's clearance after the ICC indicated it was ready to issue arrest warrants against him, Ben-Gvir, Strock and two IDF officials. Amnesty International says the planned forcible transfer of the village would constitute a war crime. Arab Center DC says concurrent reforms narrowing Israeli Supreme Court review weaken even the limited judicial check that existed. International criminal exposure has not halted, and by Smotrich's own account prompted, the demolition order.

6. Land and funding squeeze

   Under the registration plan, land Palestinians cannot document reverts to "state land," which Israelis and Jews abroad can then lease and build on. Since 1979 Israel has declared about 900,000 dunams of the West Bank "state land" and treats a further 450,000 dunams similarly without formal declaration. UNRWA has cut 20 percent of local staff; its funding for water, health and education was projected to last only until September 2026 after US funding was paused. Land reclassification and funding cuts are each narrowing Palestinian economic footing.

7. Settler violence at record levels

   OHCHR says 2026 is on track for over 2,000 settler attacks, up from 1,835 in 2025, averaging six a day. Eighteen Palestinians had been killed in settler-related violence as of July 20; a single week in May saw five more deaths and nearly 60 injuries. Twenty-two Bedouin families were forcibly displaced from the Sinjil area in May after repeated settler attacks and livestock theft. UN monitors describe settler violence and the displacement it causes as reaching an all-time high.

8. Jerusalem Day and Al-Aqsa

   Netanyahu backs Ben-Gvir's push to allow Jewish prayer at Al-Aqsa, saying it does not breach the Muslim-prayer-only status quo, despite a Deputy Attorney General's warning that it does. During May's Flag March, settlers marched through the Old City chanting anti-Arab slogans, and Ben-Gvir led a group into the Al-Aqsa compound waving the Israeli flag. Ir Amim says the march, backed by Israel's Education Ministry and Jerusalem Municipality, reflects official policy rather than a marginal event. Government-backed changes to religious practice and annual marches are eroding Al-Aqsa's long-standing status quo.