For years, Western governments have insisted that they will not permit the annexation of the occupied West Bank. The language has been consistent: annexation would violate international law, undermine the two-state solution, and destabilise the region. 

Yet this framing increasingly obscures what is actually taking place on the ground. Annexation is no longer a hypothetical future step or a looming political crisis. 

It is a process already well underway, advancing through legal, administrative and military measures that have steadily reshaped the reality of Palestinian life, while Western capitals continue to issue objections that remain largely unaccompanied by consequences.

On February 9, Israel’s security cabinet approved sweeping measures that significantly extend its civil and administrative reach across the West Bank — from easing the acquisition of Palestinian land by Jewish Israelis to expanding Israeli authority over planning and enforcement in areas previously under Palestinian Authority jurisdiction. 

Senior Israeli ministers themselves described these changes as establishing “de facto sovereignty,” language that leaves little ambiguity about either intent or outcome. 

These decisions were not framed as temporary security measures or emergency responses; they were presented as structural changes, consolidating long-term control over territory internationally recognised as occupied.

A long game 

But these steps did not emerge in isolation. They reflect a broader trajectory that has unfolded over decades, in which settlement expansion, legal integration and permanent military entrenchment have progressively altered the status........

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