The Palestinian Authority has called for the Arab League to hold an extraordinary session in light of Israel's recent measures seeking to annex the West Bank.
Muhannad al-Aklouk, the PA's permanent representative to the Arab League, said in an official statement that Arab states and the international community should confront Israel's "de facto annexation" of the occupied West Bank.
He urged the Arab League member states to take action "at all bilateral and multilateral levels to curb these aggressive Israeli decisions and practices that threaten security, stability, and peace in the region and the world".
On Sunday, two of Israel’s most high-profile far-right politicians, Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich and Defence Minister Israel Katz, announced the Security Cabinet's approval of measures tightening Israel’s grip on the Palestinian Territory, triggering a wave of international condemnation.
These measures include allowing Jewish Israelis to buy land in the occupied West Bank, through the reactivation of the Land Acquisition Committee, paving the way for more illegal settlements.
It also includes extending greater Israeli control over areas where the Palestinian Authority already exercises power, including Areas A and B, which were designated under Palestinian security control under the Oslo Accords of the early 1990s.
The measures will also see the transfer of authority over building permits for settlements in the Palestinian city of Hebron - the West Bank's largest - from the Palestinian Authority to Israel.
Additionally, the reform strengthens Israeli control over two major religious sites in the southern West Bank: Rachel's Tomb near Bethlehem and the Cave of the Patriarchs in Hebron.
Sunday’s decision comes amid a years-long campaign to tighten Israel’s grip on the occupied territory, through an increase in building of Jewish settlements, demolitions of Palestinian homes, deliberate displacement and evictions of Palestinians, and land expropriation. This has intensified significantly following the 2022 Israeli election, which saw a more far-right cabinet come to power.
Hussein al-Sheikh, the Vice President of the State of Palestine, also called on the Arab League Council, the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation, and the UN Security Council to hold emergency sessions to discuss the matter.
PA President Mahmoud Abbas, in a meeting with King Abdullah of Jordan, condemned on Monday "the recent decisions of the occupation cabinet aimed at deepening annexation in the West Bank".
West Bank no more
Politicians and experts have expressed fears that Israel’s new rules will risk eroding the PA's powers in the territory, as well as change the West Bank’s legal and political status.
Israeli Iffairs expert, Adel Shadid, told The New Arab’s Arabic-language site, Al-Araby Al-Jadeed, that the current decision "has effectively dismantled and ended a decades-long era, encompassing Ottoman rule, the British Mandate, Jordanian rule, the Israeli occupation, and the Palestinian Authority," while "ushering in a completely different phase".
Shadid said Israel’s new measures will essentially remove the Palestinian label from the occupied territories, and the Oslo Accords-era rule will be repealed.
“The West Bank, in terms of legal, political, and civil status, is now no different from Tel Aviv or any other city in Israel," he said.
Israel's allies condemn
Even longtime Israel allies such as the UK and the US joined the chorus of international criticism of the plans for the West Bank.
The UK said it "condemned the Israeli Security Cabinet’s decision to expand control" over the Palestinian territory.
A White House official on Monday stressed that President Trump also opposed Israel’s move, and that a "stable West Bank keeps Israel secure and is in line with this administration’s goal to achieve peace in the region".
Eight Muslim-majority nations, including Saudi Arabia and Turkey, as well as the UN chief, Antonio Guterres, and the European Union, also condemned the move.
Israel has occupied the West Bank since 1967, carrying out frequent raids and military operations in the territory home to 3.4 million people, who seek the territory as part of a future Palestinian state.
Meanwhile, Smotrich, who has a track record of inflammatory language towards Palestinians, stormed the town of Ni’lin near Jenin on Monday, one day after Israel announced the annexation plans.
Smotrich boasted of the raid on social media, saying that he "closely monitored ongoing enforcement activities in the site", as part of a "broader effort to restore control over the area".
The finance minister said Israel's annexation measures will put an end to the concept of a Palestinian state.