Israel aiming to annex West Bank? With Trump in charge, settlers hopeful of expanding base

With the blessing of US President Donald Trump, Jewish settlers are hopeful of expanding their settlements in West Bank and even annexing in entirely.

Israeli settlers in West Bank are among some of the most extremist sections of the population who often go on violent rampages in the West Bank, attacking Palestinians and setting their houses and vehicles on fire.

Shortly after Trump revoked US sanctions on some settlers for violence against Palestinians imposed under the previous Joe Biden administration, Israel Ganz, the leader of a group of settler communities in the West Bank, told The Jerusalem Post that settlers are hopeful of Trump’s support in the expansion of settlements and even the annexation of West Bank.

Ganz’s statement comes around the time the United Nations (UN) has warned that even partial annexation of West Bank by Israel “would constitute a most serious violation of international law”. Referring to the actions of the Israel’s far-right in West Bank, including attacks on Palestinians, UN chief Antonio Guterres said the situation in the West Bank “continues to worsen” even as the ceasefire in Gaza offered a “ray of hope”.

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Israel has occupied the West Bank since 1967 when it won control of the area after defeating Arab nations in a war. Even though the Palestinian Authority (PA), the de facto government of the Palestinians, governs West Bank partially under the Oslo Accords of 1993, Israel has the overall control and has more than 200 settlements in which hundreds of thousands of Jews live — squeezing the space of any Palestinian state in the future and encroaching upon Palestinians lands.

Thers are 132 Israeli settlements in West Banks where nearly half a million Israelis live, according to Israel Policy Forum (IPF).

While Israeli law recognises these settlements, there are more than 100 settlements of Israelis in the West Bank that even the Israeli law considers illegal, which are called ‘outposts’, as per the IPF.

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Both the settlements and outposts are deemed illegal in international law.

Ganz, the Chairman of Yesha Council in West Bank, told The Post that with Trump in the United States, Israel not just has the opportunity to expand settlements but the possibility of annexing the West Bank in its entirely is also “on the table…but it will take time”.

The Yesha Council is an association of municipal bodies of Israeli settlements in the West Bank.

Ganz attended Trump’s inauguration and met officials of the Trump administration.

Ganz told The Post that US officials he spoke to told him that Israeli settlements in West Bank must be strengthened.

Ganz, who stands emboldened from Trump’s revocation of sanctions on settlers, said there were “commitments and promises [from Trump administration] that this would happen”. He further said that the Biden administration’s decision to sanction settlers was “disconnected from all logic”.

Ganz further said, “The fact that the president did it [revocation of sanctions] in the first few hours in his new job shows a deep commitment and an understanding of how great the injustice was.”

Indicating that the Yesha Council remains committed to lobbying for the expansion of settlements and annexation of West Bank in the United States, Ganz said that the PA needs to be done with in Gaza and the US governments needs to be brought to the settlers’ side for the Israeli government to make any move.

Ganz told The Post “However, the understanding that the current situation cannot continue is shared by everyone. We have learned in recent years that policy carried out by the State of Israel requires the support of the United States, which is a true friend. We don’t want to surprise them. Every Israeli decision requires preparation in the United States and the goals of the Yesha Council are very clear: preparing the ground in the US for the moment the Israeli government will choose to go forward with bigger plans.”

Ganz’s comments come at a time when UN chief Guterres has expressed “deep concerns” about an “existential threat to the integrity and contiguity of the occupied Palestinian territory of Gaza and the West Bank” while talking about the expansion of Israeli settlements in West Bank.

In an apparent reference to Israel’s far-right minister Smotrich’s race to annex the West Bank at the earliest, Guterres said, “Senior Israeli officials openly speak of formally annexing all or part of the West Bank in the coming months. Any such annexation would constitute a most serious violation of international law.

Smotrich has declared 2025 as “the year of sovereignty in Judea and Samaria”. The Judea and Samaria are the biblical names for West Bank’s territories often used by Jews in Israel.