This position paper examines the Israeli government’s policies and objectives vis-à-vis the West Bank since the beginning of Israel’s genocidal war on Gaza in October 2023. The paper argues that the current administration is using the current situation to break with policies followed by the right-wing Israeli governments of the last two decades, and particularly since Netanyahu’s return to power in 2009.

Those governments have long rejected the Oslo Accords, but treated them as a fait accompli, while continuing to expand Israel’s settlements and extend its control over Palestinian territory (especially by attempting to annex land designated as Area C under the Oslo Accords). Simultaneously, they have kept a weak, shackled Palestinian Authority in place to manage civil and economic affairs in large Palestinian urban centers.

The current government is taking advantage of the situation created on October 7, 2023, to bring about a fundamental change on the ground in the West Bank, seizing the opportunity to implement the goals laid out when the present cabinet was formed. These goals include attempting to abandon the Oslo Accords status quo, advancing the process of weakening the PA economically, financially, and in security matters—possibly as a prelude to its complete dismemberment—expanding the settlements, further boosting the number of settlers, and de facto annexing Palestinian lands in Area C. While the events of October 7, 2023 did not bring about this shift on their own, they boosted this agenda and gave it a sheen of legitimacy within Israeli society, accelerating its implementation and the extent to which it is publicly expressed.

To read the Position Paper, click here

To read the Position Paper in Arabic, click here