Following the Recent Israeli Decision Package, the Bar Association: What is Happening is Actual Annexation Under a Soft Displacement Program

SadaNews - The Palestinian Bar Association views the series of Israeli governmental decisions with great seriousness, aimed at continuing the project of actual annexation and deepening absolute control over the West Bank within a soft displacement program. This comes through the implementation of this package of decisions, which included the start of applying the law of "Lifting Restrictions on Land Sales to Foreigners," canceling the requirement for transaction permits, lifting the confidentiality of land records in the West Bank, as well as transferring planning and construction powers in Hebron and other areas, and expanding the application of environmental and archaeological laws to include areas (A) and (B), as well as renewing the land acquisition committee.

The Bar Association sees that the goal of these decisions is to facilitate the process of absolute control over the West Bank and eliminate any procedural or legal restrictions on settlement. With rapid progress in the creeping annexation project, the Bar Association affirms the following, as stated in its statement:

"These decisions constitute a gross violation of international humanitarian law and public international law, as confirmed by the International Court of Justice in its advisory opinion regarding the issue of the Apartheid Wall in 2004, which stated that the West Bank, including East Jerusalem, is considered occupied land, and that Israel, as an occupying power, has no legal sovereignty over it, nor does it have the right to make permanent changes to its legal, administrative, or demographic structure. It also confirmed the prohibition of transferring the population of the occupying state to the occupied territory, and the illegitimacy of settlement and all measures that facilitate its continuation."

Additionally, the advisory opinion of the International Court of Justice regarding the nature of Israeli occupation of Palestinian lands in 2025 confirmed that the continued Israeli presence and dominance in the occupied Palestinian territory is illegal in itself, and that the policies of creeping annexation, expanding settlements, and changing the legal and administrative system of the occupied land constitute a serious violation of the principle of non-acquisition of land by force, undermining the Palestinian people's right to self-determination.

"These decisions related to facilitating land purchases, transferring planning and construction powers, and expanding Israeli jurisdiction to areas administratively under Palestinian Authority, come within a systematic context of illegal actual annexation and a continuous entrenchment of internationally condemned settlement reality. The international community and its various structures have obligatory commitments: first, not to recognize this unlawful situation and to condemn it, not to support it in any form; and second, the necessity to enable and not to obstruct and/or hinder the course of international justice regarding legal accountability for these decisions and the actions resulting from them, which represent violations amounting to war crimes according to the descriptions of international law."