Israel’s latest moves in the occupied West Bank are not being framed in dramatic language inside the country. There has been no formal declaration of annexation, no parliamentary ceremony proclaiming sovereignty over the hills and valleys east of the Green Line. Instead, the changes have come through cabinet decisions, legal revisions, and administrative transfers—quiet adjustments that, taken together, are reshaping the political geography of the territory captured in 1967.

Earlier this week, Israel’s Security Cabinet approved a package of measures expanding Israeli civilian authority in parts of the West Bank. On paper, the steps may appear technical: repealing restrictions that barred the sale of land in the occupied territory to Israeli citizens; reopening sealed land registration records; transferring planning and building authority in a settlement bloc near Hebron from a Palestinian municipal body to Israel’s civil administration.

But critics argue that these are not mere bureaucratic reforms. They represent a steady shift from temporary occupation toward permanent control – what many legal scholars describe as “creeping annexation.”

The legal architecture of control

Since the signing of the Oslo Accords in the 1990s, the West Bank has been divided into Areas A, B, and C. Area A falls under Palestinian civil and security control; Area B under Palestinian civil control and joint Israeli-Palestinian security oversight; Area C – comprising roughly 60 percent of the territory – remains under full Israeli civil and security control.

This arrangement was presented as interim, a five-year transitional phase meant to culminate in final-status negotiations. Nearly three decades later, the interim has hardened into permanence.

But critics argue that these are not mere bureaucratic reforms. They represent a steady shift from temporary occupation toward permanent control – what many legal scholars describe as “creeping annexation.”

But critics argue that these are not mere bureaucratic reforms. They represent a steady shift from temporary occupation toward permanent control – what many legal scholars describe as “creeping annexation.”

The latest cabinet measures reportedly extend Israeli civilian administrative reach into areas previously reserved – at least formally – for Palestinian governance. Reopening land registration records and permitting land acquisition by Israelis in Areas A and B does more than facilitate property transactions. It reconfigures who has authority over land, who decides zoning and planning, and who ultimately controls development.

The United Nations human rights office warned that the changes would allow Israeli authorities and private individuals to acquire land in zones that, under Oslo, were intended to remain under Palestinian civil jurisdiction. If implemented fully, such policies blur the already thin lines separating Areas A, B, and C.

This is annexation without proclamation: not a flag planted overnight, but a web of administrative measures that integrate territory into the occupying power’s legal and economic systems.

Oslo’s legacy: De facto annexation and an international mandate for subjugation

International law and contested interpretations

Under the Fourth Geneva Convention, the transfer of an occupying power’s civilian population........

© Middle East Monitor