Israeli minister claims West Bank actions rule out Palestinian state

Ramallah (West Bank), Feb 10: A senior Israeli official said government measures deepening Israel’s control over the occupied West Bank amount to implementing “de facto sovereignty,” language that echoes critics’ warnings that the steps are designed to foreclose the creation of a Palestinian state.
Energy Minister Eli Cohen told Israel’s Army Radio on Tuesday that the measures “establish a fact on the ground that there will not be a Palestinian state.”
His remarks followed similar statements by other members of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s government, including Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich and Defense Minister Israel Katz. Palestinians, Arab countries and human rights groups have denounced the moves, announced Sunday, as a form of annexation of territory home to about 3.4 million Palestinians who seek it for a future state.
The measures have drawn widespread international criticism and placed Israel at odds with regional partners and previous statements by US President Donald Trump, who said last year he would not allow Israel to annex the West Bank.
Netanyahu is traveling to Washington later this week to meet Trump.
A US-brokered ceasefire aimed at halting the Gaza war also acknowledged Palestinian aspirations for statehood.
The steps further weaken the Palestinian Authority’s already limited powers. President Mahmoud Abbas’ cabinet instructed Palestinian institutions not to cooperate with the measures and to adhere strictly to existing Palestinian laws.
Eight Arab and Muslim-majority countries issued a joint statement rejecting the moves as illegal and warning they would fuel regional violence.
United Nations Secretary-General António Guterres said he was “gravely concerned,” warning the measures push the parties further from a two-state solution.
Approved by Netanyahu’s Security Cabinet, the measures expand Israel’s enforcement authority over land use and planning in areas administered by the Palestinian Authority, easing the transfer of land to Jewish settlers.
Officials said they would lift long-standing restrictions on land sales to Israeli Jews, shift control over sensitive holy sites such as Hebron’s Ibrahimi Mosque, declassify land registry records, and revive a committee empowered to make “proactive” land purchases for future settlement expansion.
Critics say the steps override parts of decades-old agreements dividing the West Bank into zones of Israeli control and limited Palestinian autonomy, and formalize Israel’s accelerating settlement expansion.
More than 700,000 Israelis live in the occupied West Bank and east Jerusalem, territories captured in 1967. The international community largely considers Israeli settlements illegal and a major obstacle to peace. (AP)