Afrasianet - While the clamor of Iran's war dominates the Arab and international media, and major capitals are preoccupied with the consequences of a direct military confrontation between Israel,the United States andIran, Israel's demographic and legal change machine has been operating in the "shadows" and at unprecedented speed in the occupied West Bank.
The accelerated security conditions have provided a cover for Israel to pass a series of legislative and administrative changes in the occupied West Bank andJerusalem aimed at reshaping the reality on the ground in a way that serves its settlement ambitions and achieves its political interests, and obliterates any political horizon for the establishment of a Palestinian state.
Over time, the confrontation with Iran for the far-right government in Tel Aviv is no longer just a security challenge, but has turned into what the Atlantic Council described in its 2026 vision as a "geopolitical opportunity," allowing for a reformulation of the regional reality, with the liquidation of the Palestinian issue at its heart through a "silent legislative coup" that effectively ends any hope for the establishment of a Palestinian state in the future.
Accelerated Annexation
In February 2026, the Israeli government ratified the registration of large areas of the West Bank as "state land" for the first time since 1967, paving the way for a change in administrative law and restricting the legal protection of Palestinian lands.
In addition, decisions by Israel's Cabinet in the same month included the repeal of a law that had been in force in the West Bank since the Jordanian era that had prevented settlers from buying land in the West Bank.
This is in addition to the transfer of the powers of the Palestinian Civil Administration to the occupation authorities, which contributed to the dismantling of the existing legal structures and the reintegration of the West Bank into an Israeli administrative framework, and was considered a "window of opportunity" for the settlers, according to reports by Peace Now.
On the ground, settlement violence has escalated significantly, with thousands of settlers armed with weapons and military uniforms deployed, making attacks against Palestinians – from shooting to land confiscation – an almost daily event, reflecting official Israeli complicity in consolidating settler control, according to reports by the Israeli organization B'Tselem.
This settlement expansion has not come in isolation from disrupting the Palestinian Authority's role and weakening its ability to respond effectively. Amid international pressure and a shift of attention to the war in Iran, the Palestinian scene has been unable to provide a comprehensive political or popular response that has halted this encroachment, observers say.
As part of the so-called "Capital Shield" operation, more than 35 Palestinian facilities were demolished in Qalandia andKafr Aqab to reinforce the settlement "line of contact", revealing a dual strategy of capitalizing on international preoccupation with the war abroad, while establishing settlement realities on the ground inside the West Bank.
Settlement expansion
Political analyst Oraib al-Rantawi confirms that recent Israeli measures, such as the closure of the Al-Aqsa Mosque during and after Ramadan, took place without much fanfare, which strengthens the bet of the Israeli extreme right that "the absence of popular and Palestinian reaction enables it to impose fundamental changes at a low cost."
"While eyes await the hustle and bustle of the battles in the region, Israel in the West Bank and Jerusalem is advancing steadily to redraw maps on the ground," Rantawi added.
He pointed out that this is taking place while the settlement encroachments and restrictions continue, completing the intensive "Israelization" program for Jerusalem and the West Bank, in light of the smoke of the battles that extend from the Caspian to the eastern Mediterranean.
He said that the Palestinian issue seems to be out of the official Palestinian interest, as the Palestinian Authority in Ramallah is absent from the scene, as if it does not exist and everything is done under its ears and eyes.
In response to a question about the danger of annexation in the West Bank, Rantawi explained that Israel, in coordination with the Trump administration, postponed the official announcement of annexation to avoid political surprises with its Arab allies.
He pointed out that the reality on the ground is witnessing practical annexation, including land registration, the abolition of Jordanian laws, the disclosure of the property registry, the construction of settlements in sensitive locations to encircle Jerusalem and isolate its neighborhoods, in addition to the displacement of Palestinians from the Jordan Valley to empty Area C and officially annex it to Israel, on an escalating daily basis.
Human rights and international pressure
At the international human rights level, UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Volker Türk noted in a report issued on March 17, 2026, that Israel has taken advantage of security conditions to accelerate what he described as "illegal annexation" and the displacement of more than 36,000 Palestinians in the West Bank since the beginning of the year, an escalation that amounts to dangerous and ongoing demographic change.
In the face of this reality, Jordan's King Abdullah II warned against any Israeli attempts to annex Palestinian territories and displace Palestinians in Gaza and the West Bank, and stressed, during a phone call with the Egyptian president, the need to stabilize the Palestinians on their land, considering that achieving a just and comprehensive peace based on the two-state solution is the only way to ensure the security and stability of the region.
According to observers, this royal statement reflects Jordan's position rejecting any annexation or displacement measures, and embodies local and regional concern that turning the West Bank into an administrative reality that serves Israeli sovereignty provokes political and strategic earthquakes that affect not only the Palestinians but also relations between Jordan and Israel, and thus regional stability as a whole.
In addition to the field measures, the Israeli government has imposed strict restrictions on international organizations operating in the West Bank, according to Human Rights Watch, facilitating demolitions away from international monitoring.
