In the wake of former President Donald Trump’s re-electionIsrael’s far-right finance minister has suggested the country will consider annexing the occupied West Bank in 2025. Here’s what you need to know:
What is the West Bank?
The West Bank is an area on the west bank of the Jordan River, part of the former British Mandate Palestinian Territory. It is surrounded by Israel on three sides – north, west and south – and borders the country of Jordan to the east, across the river.
After the departure of British forces in 1948, during the creation of the modern state of Israel, Arab forces entered and held the West Bank, and the city of Jerusalem was divided into two sectors: western Israel and eastern Jordan.
During the Six-Day War in 1967, Israel occupied the West Bank and established a military administration there. Israel has claimed East Jerusalem as part of its own territory, but fighting between Israelis and the area’s Palestinian residents – who live with significant restrictions on their movement and other aspects of their lives under occupation which has lasted for decades – continues.
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Hamas, designated a terrorist organization by the United States and Israel, decisively won the 2006 legislative elections in the West Bank over the Western-backed Fatah faction led by Mahmoud Abbas, which administered the Palestinian Authority . Hamas’ victory led to sanctions and boycotts by the United States, the European Union and Israel against the new joint Palestinian leadership led by Hamas.
In 2007, Abbas dissolved the Hamas-led administration in the West Bank and created an emergency pro-Fatah cabinet. The power struggle between the two Palestinian factions has led to a split between the West Bank and Gaza, with Western powers diplomatically and economically supporting the Fatah-administered West Bank while blockading the territory. Hamas-led Gaza Strip.
How might US politics change under the second Trump administration?
The long-standing position of the United States is to support a two-state solution to the conflict between Israelis and Palestinians, which means the creation of an independent Palestinian state alongside the independent state of Israel. Most iterations of this policy envision a future Palestinian state consisting of the West Bank and East Jerusalem, as well as Gaza.
Previous Trump administration tradition reversedbut did not outright reject the two-state solution. Trump moved the US embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem and proposed a plan that would have cemented Israeli control over the entire city. It would also have protected Israeli settlements in the West Bank, which are illegal under international law, while moving toward Palestinian autonomy.
President-elect Trump’s choice to become the next U.S. ambassador to Israel, former Arkansas governor and Baptist preacher Mike Huckabee, never supported a two-state solution.
In an interview with The Associated Press while running as a Republican presidential candidate in 2015, Huckabee said that, if elected, his administration would officially recognize the West Bank as part of Israel.
“I think we have a responsibility to respect the fact that this is land that historically belonged to Jews,” Huckabee told the AP.
In a podcast interview earlier this year, Huckabee said Palestinians “don’t exist,” describing himself as an “unapologetic, unreformed Zionist.” He expressed similar views during his 2008 campaign.
Israel “is an extraordinary oasis in a country of totalitarianism surrounded by tyranny,” he said on the podcast earlier this year.
Florida Senator Marco Rubio, Trump’s pick for secretary of state, has repeatedly expressed support for the Israeli government’s response to the brutal Hamas attack on October 7, 2023.
“While the Biden-Harris administration has publicly supported Israel’s right to defend itself, it has also undermined Israel’s maneuverability, leading to a schizophrenic policy toward the region,” Rubio said in a statement. letter to current Secretary of State Antony Blinken in August.
Expressing his objection to American sanctions Against individuals accused of supporting “extremist settler violence” against Palestinians in the West Bank, Rubio wrote: “Israel has always sought peace with the Palestinians. , rejected such overtures. Israelis living legitimately in their historic homeland are not an obstacle to peace;
Far-right Israeli government prepares for West Bank annexation
Some of those who do not support the creation of an independent Palestinian state support Israel’s annexation of the West Bank, including members of the current far-right Israeli government led by Netanyahu.
Netanyahu’s Likud party is currently part of a coalition, trained to keep Netanyahu in powerwith radical right-wing nationalist parties like the Religious Zionist Party.
Netanyahu, who spoke out against the creation of a Palestinian statecommitted to pursuing annexation of the West Bank as part of Likud’s coalition agreement with the Religious Zionist Party.
“The people of Israel have a natural right to the Land of Israel,” the agreement states. “In light of the belief in the above-mentioned right, the Prime Minister will lead the formulation and promotion of a policy under which sovereignty will be applied in the West Bank, while choosing the timing and taking into account all interests national and international of the State of Israel.
Bezalel Smotrich, Israel’s finance minister and member of the Religious Zionist Party, said he believed Israel could work with the new Trump administration to promote annexation of the West Bank.
“I am confident that we will be able to work closely with President-elect Trump and all members of the new administration, to promote the common values and interests of the two countries, to strengthen the strength and security of the state of Israel,” he added. to expand the circle of peace and stability in the Middle East with strength and faith and on the basis of recognition of the indisputable historical belonging of the entire Land of Israel to the people of Israel,” declared Smotrich on social networks.
Israeli settlements and small outposts in the West Bank are illegal under international law. They are also seen as an obstacle to a possible two-state solution, because the more Israeli Jews live in the occupied territory, the less likely it seems that Israel will ever relinquish control of the land to become part of a Palestinian state. .
A Pew Research Center survey this summer found that Israelis were divided on the potential security risks and benefits of continued settlement expansion, with 40% of respondents saying they helped make Israel more secure and 35% saying they harmed security. The survey finds that 21% of Israelis do not believe that settlement expansion would have a significant impact on security.
Some Israeli activists believe their government is taking advantage of the country’s collective grief over the Oct. 7 attack to promote an agenda in the West Bank that does not enjoy broad public support.
“In Israel, there is very little public criticism or public debate about what is happening in the West Bank,” Sarit Michaeli, head of international advocacy for the Jerusalem-based rights group B’Tselem, told CBS News about the situation. -October. 7 attack. “Israelis are furious. They are angry. They are hurt. They are traumatized, and this collective trauma has been exploited by our government to advance policies that most Israelis do not necessarily agree with in the West Bank. “
In June, the Israeli body that governs the West Bank transferred many powers in the territory from Israeli military officials to civilian officials, who work under Smotrich.
Since the October 7 Hamas attack, the monitoring group Peace Now says it has documented at least 43 new illegal outposts in the West Bank, mostly on agricultural land. Dozens of new roads have been paved to facilitate the establishment of these outposts, the group said.
What would it mean if Israel annexed the West Bank?
In 2020, the Institute for National Security Studies (INSS) at Tel Aviv University analyzed what Israeli annexation of the West Bank might actually entail. They examined three possible scenarios, in which Israel would take full security and administrative control over part of the Palestinian territory, or would simply prevent the future evacuation of existing Israeli settlements.
In all three scenarios examined, Israeli sovereignty would not necessarily fully apply to Palestinians in the region. If this were the case, Palestinians would live under the jurisdiction of the State of Israel and, under Israeli law, would have the right to apply for citizenship.
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The INSS said annexing the West Bank territory would make it more difficult for future Israeli governments to give up those lands as part of a deal to create a Palestinian state.
“In reality, annexation means tying the hands of future Israeli governments that would be willing to transfer territories for a political settlement,” the INSS report said.
A senior Palestinian politician from Gaza recently told CBS News that whatever changes Israel makes under Washington’s new leadership, it would not end the Palestinian people’s decades-long struggle for their own state.
“We will fight for our rights,” said Mustafa Barghouti, a doctor in Gaza and leader of the Palestinian National Initiative party. told CBS News. The Palestinian National Initiative party advocates a unified democratic government for the West Bank and Gaza Strip.
“It will take time. We will suffer. We know that. But what is the alternative? To cease to exist? This is ethnic cleansing. We cannot accept this,” Barghouti said.
