When he heard the next American ambassador to Israel speak, Uri Bank couldn’t believe his ears. This resident of Neve Daniel, a wealthy colony in the West Bank, has been active for decades within the Israeli ultranationalist right. With Mike Huckabee, newly appointed by Donald Trump, he has just found a zealous ally. Close to evangelical circles and former governor of Arkansas, the Republican bluntly expresses his break with traditional American positions: “I am opposed to the two-state solution [NDLR : Israël et la Palestine]. This is a line that Donald Trump has held and I hope he continues to do so. I have never used the term West Bank – such a thing does not exist – I speak of Judea and Samaria and I say that there is no occupation. This is land occupied by the rightful people here for three thousand five hundred years, since the days of Abraham,” he told the religious Zionist website Arutz 7.
“It’s truly miraculous. Never has an American official of this level gone so far,” jubilant Uri Bank. He has all the more reason to rejoice as the future Trump administration is largely dominated by unconditional supporters of Israeli nationalism. The next Secretary of State, Marco Rubio, has long worked to increase military aid to Israel and calls for the eradication of Hamas. Elise Stefanik, new United States ambassador to the UN, has distinguished herself by her relentless fight against anti-Zionism on American campuses and advocates a permanent end to funding for UNRWA, the agency for Palestinian refugees . Not to mention Pete Hegseth, appointed to the Ministry of Defense, who calls for the construction of the third temple of Jerusalem on the Esplanade des Mosques!
“These positions are the product of the influence work that we have been carrying out for many years in the United States,” says Uri Bank. “This new administration will launch a revolution. We will finally stop talking about a two-state solution and start talking of our sovereignty over our land.” The fifty-year-old is an activist within the Ribonout (“Sovereignty”) movement, a pressure group which pleads with Israeli and American elected officials for the annexation of the West Bank. Instead of establishing a Palestinian state on this territory – conquered during the Six Day War in 1967 and administered by the Israeli army since then – the annexationists advocate its automatic attachment to the State of Israel and the granting Palestinians a residency status guaranteeing them individual rights but not the right to vote in Israel. “They will be able to become Jordanian citizens and vote for the Jordanian Parliament while still living here,” explains Uri Bank.
Path paved by Trump’s first term
This annexation project is not new. It has been circulating in nationalist circles since the 1970s. But the massacres of October 7, organized from territory under Palestinian control, relaunched this option. Because for many Israelis, it is the political autonomy that Hamas enjoyed in Gaza that allowed it to build a terrorist infrastructure capable of organizing such a deadly offensive. “Those who still talk about a Palestinian state don’t know what they’re talking about,” says Emmanuel Navon, professor of international politics and director of the Israeli office of the NGO Elnet. Close to the center right, he hardly believes in a territorial compromise leading to the creation of a Palestinian state. “All negotiations on sharing have failed because the Palestinians only subscribe to one option: the destruction of the State of Israel,” he says. We saw this on October 7. Annexation constitutes a credible horizon, but it remains to be seen what exactly we are talking about.”
If its institutional contours remain unclear, the United States has already begun to pave the way during Trump’s first term. In 2018, Washington recognized Jerusalem as the capital of Israel and moved its embassy there: an implicit validation of the annexation of the Arab neighborhoods of East Jerusalem by Israel after the Six Day War in 1967. In March 2019, the United States recognize Israeli sovereignty over the Golan Heights, also occupied after the 1967 victory. In January 2020, a few months before the end of his mandate, Trump put on the table “the deal of century”, a conflict resolution plan drawn up by his son-in-law Jared Kushner in consultation with Israeli nationalists. The document validates the annexation of East Jerusalem and the Golan, and adds that of the main blocks of Jewish settlements in the West Bank: Ariel, Maale Adumim, Gush Etsion and the Jordan Valley, giving Israel control of the borders between the Mediterranean and the Jordan. The Palestinians are offered limited autonomy over 70% of the territory conquered in 1967 and a $50 billion economic development plan. Mahmoud Abbas, the president of the Palestinian Authority, categorically refuses.
“This first term of Trump was terrible for us and I fear that the second will be worse, worries Ghassan Khatib, academic and former minister of the Palestinian Authority. We are outraged by the declarations of the members of the future Trump administration but it is rather the reality on the ground that should alarm us. The annexation is already taking shape. While the world’s eyes are on the atrocities in Gaza or the Lebanese drama, Israel is taking advantage of this to multiply. accomplished facts in the West Bank, particularly between Bethlehem and Hebron.”
“Triple the population in 20 years”
To measure the progress of the annexation process, it is necessary to explore the surroundings of these two large Palestinian cities in the south of the West Bank. You get there from Jerusalem by taking Route 60 on the southern edge of the city. A vast four-lane road, punctuated by two long tunnels and a viaduct, leads in around fifteen minutes to Gush Etsion, one of the major regions of Israeli colonization. As we approach the first settlements, the road narrows but dozens of machines are at work widening the roadway. “They are going to double the track and they are building an interchange which will serve Bethlehem via a tunnel,” explains Mohammed, one of the site workers.
These new roads are part of the impressive development of Gush Etsion. Fast and safe, they encourage Israelis from Jerusalem to settle in this pastoral region renowned for the quality of its educational establishments. “We plan to triple the population of Gush Etsion within twenty years,” says Yaron Rosenthal, president of the local regional council. With Donald Trump, we finally have an administration that recognizes our legitimacy here and shares our goals. From now on, instead to build 2,000 housing units per year, we will build 20,000.”
After Gush Etsion, route 60 heads south towards Hebron, the largest Palestinian city in the West Bank (200,000 inhabitants). In this sector, settlements are becoming rarer and less extensive but, in order to encourage colonization, pharaonic works have been undertaken. The new road between Gush Etzion and Hebron, inaugurated in 2023, bypasses most Palestinian villages and eases traffic flow, providing a feeling of normality. “If they have invested so much in this work, that means they are here to stay,” sighs Ahmed Hassan, a resident of the Palestinian village of Al-Aroub, spanned by a bridge on the new road.
“Annexation will be inexorable”
At the other end of the West Bank, in the Nablus region, the annexation process is even more advanced. Located about thirty minutes from Tel Aviv by a wide expressway, Ariel has thirty thousand inhabitants, a good half of whom are secular. The location attracts middle-class families looking for a house with a piece of garden for a reasonable price. With a renowned university, a country club with swimming pool and a vast shopping center, Ariel feels like a city in Israel from the inside. “Pass the green line [NDLR : de démarcation entre Israël et la Cisjordanie]prices are falling, even though we feel perfectly safe here,” says Igor, an Israeli born in the Soviet Union and living in Ariel since the end of the 1990s.
Freed from American pressures, Ariel aims to reach 100,000 inhabitants in ten years. As in Gush Etsion, the driving force behind colonization is the demographic explosion that the country has experienced for two decades. With three children per woman on average – double that of France – Israel is close to saturation and covets the abundant land reserves in the West Bank, located near Tel Aviv and Jerusalem. “The young people who are fighting in Gaza and South Lebanon will tomorrow form the large families who will settle here. Our demographic dynamics will make annexation inexorable,” predicts Yaron Rosenthal.
A major obstacle remains: the Palestinian people. Such absorption would pose considerable challenges: Granting citizenship to the 2.5 million Palestinians living in the territory would threaten Israel’s Jewish character. Denying them this right would perpetuate a situation of apartheid. “The Americans favor the application of the Puerto Rico model: the Palestinians would have Israeli nationality but would elect their own parliament,” indicates Emmanuel Navon.
A dangerous illusion
In favor of a two-state solution, former senior IDF officer Shaul Ariéli believes that the annexation of the West Bank would bankrupt Israel. “The economic costs are staggering: $14.5 billion per year, including health care, education and social security for Palestinian residents. Proponents of annexation believe they can gradually incorporate territories while minimizing the negative consequences This is a dangerous illusion: it would likely lead to the collapse of the Palestinian Authority, and the end of security coordination, as well as the takeover of the entire West Bank. “In such a scenario, Israel would be forced to establish military rule and take responsibility for 2.6 million Palestinians,” he warns.Times of Israel.
While awaiting the inauguration of Donald Trump next January, the Israeli government continues to advance its pawns. On November 22, Defense Minister Israel Katz, loyal to Benjamin Netanyahu, announced that the settlers would henceforth be subject to common Israeli law and no longer to the military law in force in the West Bank. Uri Bank is convinced: 2025 will be the year of annexation.
.