While the world remains fixated on the devastation in Gaza and escalating regional tensions, the Israeli government has quietly executed a “legal coup” in the occupied West Bank, drawing condemnation from Palestinians.Late on Sunday, Israel’s security cabinet ratified a series of decisions pushed by Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich and Defence Minister Israel Katz. The new measures, which aim to expand Israel’s power across the occupied West Bank, will make it easier to seize Palestinian land illegally.“We are anchoring settlement as an inseparable part of Israel’s government policy,” said Katz.Experts say it will fundamentally alter the civil and legal reality of the territory, removing what the Israeli ministers termed “legal obstacles” that have existed for decades against the expansion of illegal settlements in the occupied territories.The Palestinian presidency called the decision “dangerous” and an “open Israeli attempt to legalise settlement expansion” and land confiscation. President Mahmoud Abbas’s office called on the United States and the United Nations Security Council to intervene immediately.On Monday, eight Muslim-majority countries denounced Israel for trying to impose “unlawful Israeli sovereignty” in the occupied West Bank.Palestinian officials and legal experts warn that this package effectively terminates the 1993 Oslo Accords, stripping the Palestinian Authority (PA) of its remaining civil powers and legislating the de facto annexation of the West Bank. (Al Jazeera)The real estate warAt the heart of these decisions is a strategic assault on land ownership laws that have been in place since 1967, when Israel occupied Gaza …
