The Israeli government is discussing the annexation of parts of the occupied West Bank. The move comes as several Western countries signal their intention to recognize Palestine as a state, Axios reports.

Israeli Strategic Affairs Minister Ron Dermer and Foreign Minister Gideon Sa’ar informed several European colleagues that the country could annex parts of the West Bank if these nations proceed with recognition.

A European official said that Dermer even told France’s Middle East Advisor to the President, Anne-Claire Legendre, that Israel would annex the entire “Area C,” which covers 60% of the West Bank.

Last week, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu held a meeting to explore possible responses to such recognition. The Israeli Security Cabinet is also expected to discuss the issue today, Sunday.

US Ambassador to Israel Mike Huckabee told Axios that European plans are prompting Israel to consider annexation.

“What the Europeans are planning to do started causing more and more people in Israel to say that maybe they should start talking of annexation of parts of Judea and Samaria,” Huckabee said, using the term the Israeli government applies to the West Bank.

Other annexation options

A senior Israeli official said several annexation scenarios are under consideration. The approach Dermer shared with the French represents the maximalist option.

Axios reports that a second scenario would involve annexing Israeli settlements and the roads leading to them, covering roughly 10% of the West Bank.

A third scenario would include settlements, access roads, and the Jordan Valley, which accounts for about 30% of the territory.

Everything depends on Trump

Most of the international community considers the West Bank an occupied territory. Any Israeli annexation would likely be seen as illegal and provocative.

However, Israel’s next steps will depend on the position of Trump. During his first term, he twice blocked Israeli annexations. US Ambassador to Israel Mike Huckabee said the administration has not yet defined its stance.

“I don’t know how extensive (the planned annexation -ed.) is. I’m not sure there is a common view inside the Israeli government about where it would be and how much,” he said.

Israeli, American, and European officials told Axios about Israel’s plans. Some Israeli representatives claim that the Trump administration may not oppose annexation, as they are angry at countries planning to recognize Palestine. At the same time, two US officials stated that, although it is impossible to predict Trump’s position, it is unlikely that the administration would approve annexation.

Plans of several countries and the US opposition

Countries including Australia, Canada, France, and the United Kingdom announced plans to recognize Palestine at the UN General Assembly in late September. This would join nearly 150 countries that have already done so.

Israel and the US are seeking to deter these nations. They have taken measures against the Palestinian Authority and warned of even harsher steps if recognition occurs.

On Friday, the US State Department announced it would deny visas to senior Palestinian officials seeking to attend the UN General Assembly in September. Previously issued visas will also be revoked. A State Department official confirmed that Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas will be barred from traveling to New York.

The U.K. will recognize a Palestinian state if there’s no cease-fire

Britain’s prime minister, Keir Starmer, announced yesterday that the country would recognize the state of Palestine in September if Israel did not agree to a cease-fire with Hamas and halt a war that has brought starvation to Gaza.

In addition to a cease-fire, Starmer said the Israeli government would have to agree not to annex the occupied West Bank and commit to a peace process that would result in a Palestinian state. Israel is highly unlikely to accept these demands.

Starmer’s government has faced political pressure as the British public has recoiled from images of starving children in Gaza. “The situation is simply intolerable,” he said.

Israel’s Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich. Photo: Ohad Zwigenberg/AP/dpa Keystone

Israeli Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich has threatened to annex the West Bank if a Palestinian state is recognized next month.

Keystone-SDA SDA

“You have no chance, there will be no Palestinian state,” Smotrich said during a press conference addressed to several countries that want to announce recognition at the United Nations General Assembly in September. “You will not decide from overseas what the future of the Jewish people looks like.”

Smotrich said near the settlement of Maale Adumim: “If you recognize a Palestinian state in September, our response will be to assert full Israeli sovereignty in all areas of Judea and Samaria (the Hebrew name for the West Bank).”

Israel rejects recognition as a “reward for Hamas”

Several states, including France, Canada and Australia, want to recognize a Palestinian state next month. Almost 150 of the 193 member states of the United Nations have already done so. The aim is to promote a two-state solution. This means that Israel and an independent Palestinian state exist peacefully side by side.

Israel, on the other hand, rejects recognition as a “reward for Hamas” after the massacre in the Israeli border area on October 7, 2023. Ghazi Hamad, a high-ranking Hamas member, praised the expected recognition in a TV interview last month as the “fruits of October 7”.

Netanyahu had suspended annexation plans in 2020

In 1967, Israel conquered the West Bank and East Jerusalem, where more than 700,000 settlers now live among around three million Palestinians. According to international law, the settlements there are illegal. The Palestinians claim the territories for their own state with East Jerusalem as its capital. However, the Israeli government rejects the two-state solution on the grounds that it would endanger Israel’s existence.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu had suspended annexation plans in the West Bank in 2020 in return for a rapprochement with the United Arab Emirates.

Even if Starmer were to follow through and recognise Palestine, it would seldomly alter the reality of starvation, the bombing of schools, and the slaughter of families, writes Omar Shabana [photo credit: Getty Images]

For nearly two years, activists across the UK have demanded that their government impose serious sanctions, halt intelligence and military support, and cut diplomatic ties with Israel.

As Gaza continues to endure famine and mass slaughter, Keir Starmer appeared before the nation on July 29 to announce that the UK would recognise Palestinian statehood. But there was a catch. This recognition would be conditional. If Israel does not wish for it to happen, it simply needs to take Starmer’s ill-defined “steps” towards a ceasefire.

If Gaza were not in the grip of a second Nakba (or catastrophe), such a statement might belong in the comedy circuit. Though declining Labour approval polls almost compensate for it, if you’re looking for a quick laugh.

Nevertheless, it is important to ask in honesty, how much weight such a statement holds and whether it could actually pressurise Israel towards ending this slaughter.

In other words, is this a move that could deliver real, much-needed impact for Palestinians on the ground, or is it political lip-service that the citizens of the world have grown tired of?

I find it important to preface the attempted answer by stating that the very idea that Palestinian statehood should be conditional is, in itself, an insult to human dignity. It tells Palestinians that their lives are bargaining chips. They either die in humiliation, or they are recognised as less than human by Britain. In seeking to appear compassionate, Starmer exposes a deep political cowardice and a chilling disregard for humanity.

The details of his statement make this clearer. Starmer pledged that the UK would recognise Palestine at the UN General Assembly in September unless Israel took “substantive steps” to end the crisis in Gaza, agree to a ceasefire, and commit to long-term peace.

Yet he offered no definition of “substantive.” He did not say how long a ceasefire must last, whether it must be enacted before September or simply promised, or what it would mean in practice.

If Israel announced on August 31 that it was “moving towards” a ceasefire while still withholding aid and still targeting civilians, would that satisfy the Labour government?

With a bar so low it is practically underground, there is endless room for Britain to continue shielding Israel from consequences while claiming a moral high ground. On 1 September, Starmer could simply tell the public that Israel’s ambassador had given “assurances,” and the promise of recognition would vanish.

There is also the matter of feasibility. Since October 2023, Gaza has seen just two pauses in massacres by Israel. The first, in November 2023, was a truce that lasted one week and was pressed for by the US. The second, in January 2025, came as Donald Trump took office; he was reported to have also pressed Israel directly. US influence is clear for all to see and was so decisively showcased in Trump’s stopping of an Israeli airstrike on Iran while the jets were mid-air.

But this time, Washington is not on board. The State Department condemned Starmer’s move as a “slap in the face” to the victims of October 7. Trump himself denied discussing the proposal with Keir Starmer, claiming that such a move would amount to “rewarding Hamas”. He further remarked that Starmer’s statement “doesn’t carry weight”. This can perhaps be seen in Israel’s actions since the statement.

On July 23, the Knesset voted 71–13 to fully annex the West Bank. Though largely symbolic, the move was a defiant answer to the UK and France’s flirtation with recognising Palestine earlier in the year. In May, Israel’s Strategic Affairs Minister Ron Dermer reportedly warned that West Bank annexation would follow any recognition.

Rather than wait to respond, Israel took pre-emptive action by voting to annex the West Bank. Ten days after Starmer’s announcement, Israeli ministers approved Netanyahu’s plan to occupy Gaza and annex it outright.

Not only does this demonstrate the complete ineffectiveness of Starmer’s statement, but it also highlights the remarkable decline of Britain’s soft power.

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Even if Starmer were to follow through and recognise Palestine, it would seldomly alter the reality of starvation, the bombing of schools, and the slaughter of families. It would not end the sexual violence that still takes place against Palestinian prisoners, including children.

There’s precedent for why this is the case. One hundred forty-seven UN member states (out of 193 total) already do so, yet the genocide in Gaza unfolds in plain view for the world to see. Recognition alone is not a weapon capable of stopping ethnic cleansing.

The real levers of pressure are known to all, and have been since the 1948 Nakba: sanctions, the freezing of military aid, and the cutting of diplomatic relations. Instead of an empty national address, Germany has recently chosen to take one of those steps by freezing military exports to the Zionist occupation.

Starmer, while making those statements, continues to welcome Israeli army personnel and generals into the country. Even more revolting, the UK continues to fly planes over the Gaza Strip to provide military intelligence to the Zionist occupation. This takes place while the UK continues to roadblock Gazan students with unconditional offers to study in British Universities.

Starmer delivers the oldest trick in politics: make a bold-sounding statement with a ticking clock, then leave yourself every possible escape route. This is not leadership. It is performance. It is an act of moral evasion dressed as diplomacy, and it is the kind of behaviour that will define this Labour government as weak, dishonest, and complicit in history’s judgment.

Omar is an Egyptian-British PhD student at the University of Cambridge and a pro-Palestinian activist. Whilst his research focuses on immunology and disease, Omar has further interests in politics, religion, and sociology.

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