TheJakartaPost
Please Update your browser
Your browser is out of date, and may not be compatible with our website. A list of the most popular web browsers can be found below.
Just click on the icons to get to the download page.
Popular Reads
Top Results
No results found. Please check your search term and try again
Can't find what you're looking for?
View all search results
Popular Reads
Top Results
No results found. Please check your search term and try again
Can't find what you're looking for?
View all search resultsNearly 20 nations slam Israel's West Bank moves towards 'de facto annexation'
Israel has approved a series of initiatives this month backed by far-right ministers, including launching a process to register land in the West Bank as "state property" and allowing Israelis to purchase land there directly.
Change text size
Gift Premium Articles
to Anyone
Share the best of The Jakarta Post with friends, family, or colleagues. As a subscriber, you can gift 3 to 5 articles each month that anyone can read—no subscription needed!
Heavy machinery demolishes a Palestinian building near Hebron in the Israeli-occupied West Bank, February 18, 2026. (Reuters/Mussa Qawasma)
N
early 20 countries on Monday condemned Israel's recent moves to tighten its control over the occupied West Bank, characterizing them as attempts to annex the territory and undermine Palestinian statehood.
Israel has approved a series of initiatives this month backed by far-right ministers, including launching a process to register land in the West Bank as "state property" and allowing Israelis to purchase land there directly.
The moves "are part of a clear trajectory that aims to change the reality on the ground and to advance unacceptable de facto annexation", the 18 mostly European or Muslim-majority countries said, in a joint statement.
"Such actions are a deliberate and direct attack on the viability of the Palestinian state and the implementation of the two-state solution."
The statement was signed by regional heavyweights Saudi Arabia and Egypt, European powers France and Spain, as well as Indonesia, Brazil and Turkey, among others.
It was also endorsed by the secretaries general League of Arab States and the Organization of Islamic Cooperation, as well as the Palestinian Authority.
In addition to around three million Palestinians, more than 500,000 Israelis live in West Bank settlements and outposts, which are illegal under international law.
The current Israeli government has fast-tracked settlement expansion, approving a record 52 settlements in 2025.
The West Bank, occupied since 1967, would form the largest part of any future Palestinian state but is seen by many on the religious right as Israeli land.
