Photo: Adobe Stock | Analysis by Summer Lane
U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights Volker Turk claimed this week that, amid the fragile ceasefire in the Middle East between Hamas and Israel, the Holy Land may be seeking to implement “permanent demographic change” in the West Bank and Gaza Strip.
Turk’s inflammatory comments were made during a speech before the U.N. Human Rights Council in Geneva on Thursday.
“Taken together, Israel’s actions appear aimed at making a permanent demographic change in Gaza and the West Bank, raising concerns about ethnic cleansing,” he said. “…Time and again, I stand before this council and brief on the litany of violations. I make recommendations, plead for accountability, and for respect of international law. I do so again today because it is crucial. The ongoing violations of international law in Gaza must stop.”
Certainly, Turk’s comments seem alarming, especially amid the U.S.-spearheaded peace efforts in the Middle East, of which President Donald Trump has been the chief architect.
In fact, the U.S. recently hosted the inaugural meeting of the Board of Peace last week, further paving the way toward potential reconstruction efforts in the Gaza Strip, as many member countries have pledged billions in relief and aid to the region.
“When I took office, the war in Gaza was raging with thousands of people being killed, and no end in sight,” the president said last week. “Today, thanks to unrelenting diplomacy, and the commitment of many of the great people in this room…the war in Gaza is over.”
In light of this, what is the Commissioner Turk referring to in his criticisms of Israel? According to Insider Paper, Israel has reportedly greenlit a slate of initiatives aimed at registering areas in the West Bank as state property and allowing Israeli citizens to purchase land. Other outlets have reported similarly, noting that the Israeli Foreign Ministry has described the advancement of registration as an effort to “bring order” to the region.
According to the U.N., earlier this February, Israel’s security cabinet did indeed approve measures that could increase Israeli civilian authority in around 40 percent of the territory in the West Bank. German Foreign Ministry Spokesman Josef Hinterseher described these measures as promoting “de facto annexation.”
To be clear, Israel has already occupied the West Bank for decades, but the debate over its potential “official” annexation has remained contentious – and Israel is certainly accustomed to receiving criticism from world leaders for every move it makes in that small but extremely embattled region.
Israel has generally viewed itself as having an ancestral claim to the territory, amid a tumultuous political history in the region. Consider this analysis from the U.N. in 1982:
“Israel’s legal view towards the 1967 occupation of the West Bank and Gaza is based on the premise that neither Jordan nor any other Arab State has any sovereign territorial rights to those territories. According to Israel’s position there was no ‘legitimate sovereign’ in the West Bank and Gaza previous to the 1967 war. The purported annexation by Jordan of the West Bank in 1950 was devoid of any legal effect therefore Jordan [does not] have revisionary rights to the territory. On the other hand, Israel claims sovereignty to any territory of the former Palestine Mandate founded on historical and religious links to the biblical land.”
Currently, the Board of Peace envisions a stable Middle East, foundationally based on the 20-point Gaza Peace Plan. The board itself was approved by the UN Security Council. Israeli hostages taken by Hamas, both living and deceased, thanks to President Trump, have been returned to their families.
But what about the West Bank – an area that the UN commissioner is claiming may be at risk amid such a fragile Middle East peace? Certainly, annexation would be preferable for Israel, due to its Biblical link to the region. And yet, the situation is not that simple. There are many geopolitical factors involved, and the fallout could be catastrophic for the Middle East.
“I will not allow Israel to annex the West Bank. Nope. I will not allow it. It’s not going to happen,” President Trump said last September, when discussing the matter. “…There’s been enough. It’s time to stop now, okay?”
Last fall, the Israeli Knesset voted to greenlight a largely symbolic bill that would annex the West Bank – a political declaration that drew the ire of the Trump administration amid extremely tenuous peace negotiations between Israel and Hamas.
“If it was a political stunt, it was a very stupid political stunt, and I personally take some insult…,” Vice President J.D. Vance said at the time. “The policy of the Trump administration is that the West Bank will not be annexed by Israel. That will continue to be our policy.”
It seems highly unlikely that, even amid murmurs from the U.N. and whispers from Israel itself, the country would seriously annex the West Bank. Doing so would clearly disrupt the progress toward peace that the Trump administration has championed, and at the very least, Israel would likely make no such overt move while the current president is in the White House.