The Prime Minister of Israel, Benjamin Netanyahu, can in principle reveal at any time, since July 1, his strategy concerning the annexation of a third of the West Bank, Palestinian territory occupied by Israel since 1967. In particular the blocks of Jewish settlements and the Jordan Valley, a very fertile strip of agricultural land that accounts for 30% of the territory.
A controversial election promise that fits into the logic of the "peace plan" presented by Donald Trump in late January. If realized, it would spell the end of the two-state solution, and destroy any idea of a contiguous and viable Palestinian state.
"Benjamin Netanyahu has made this project a personal affair, he wants to go down in history as one of the Prime Ministers to have validated a form of annexation like Menachem Begin with the Golan Heights in 1981, or even Levi Eskhol with East Jerusalem, after the 1967 war ", explains to France 24 David Rigoulet-Roze, researcher specialist of the Middle East, associated with the Institute of international and strategic relations (Iris), and editor-in-chief of the review" Orients Strategic ".
The territories coveted by Benjamin Netanyahu, who seems to be procrastinating pending an American green light, are in zone C of the West Bank. This area, under the Oslo Accords signed in the 1990s by Israelis and Palestinians, is divided into three sectors.
Zone A is under exclusive Palestinian control, zone B under Palestinian administration and Israeli security control and therefore Zone C, under exclusive security and administrative control of the Hebrew State.
According to the Oslo Accords, this fragmentation of the Palestinian territory, which places 60% of the occupied territory and the only strip of land continues in Zone C, was initially to remain temporary, until new agreements lead to the creation of a State. Palestinian side of Israel. In vain twenty-seven years later.
Right considers "Zone C as Israeli"
"Originally, the idea was that area C would gradually become part of the Palestinian Authority, and eventually part of (the state) of Palestine when there was a permanent agreement," recalls Yossi Beilin, Israeli negotiator for the Oslo Accords, interviewed by AFP. But the right considers "zone C as Israeli" and "abuses Oslo" by trying to transform something "temporary" into something "eternal".
For the Israeli right, which has often debated the advisability of annexing "Zone C", without taking the step despite nationalist bidding, the latter is not Palestinian territory. She sees only one "disputed" area located in "Judea and Samaria", in reference to the biblical name used by the Israeli government to define the occupied West Bank.
In recent years, several figures from the Israeli far right and the hard wing of the classic right, such as former Defense Minister Naftali Bennett, leader of the Jewish Home, a religious nationalist party, or Uri Ariel, former minister of the Agriculture of Benyamin Netanyahu, and Yuli Edelstien tenor of Likoud, called for the annexation of Zone C.
Some even evoke the annexation of the whole of the West Bank, like Moshé Feiglin of the right wing of Likud, who had proposed, in 2013, to "give to each family [Palestinian, Editor's note] half a million dollars for encourage emigration ".
Benjamin Netanyahu had stayed away from this debate, before he promised, last September, a week to the day before the legislative elections which promised to be complicated for his camp, to realize the dream of the right of his right and " to write a glorious new chapter in the history of Zionism. "
Campaigning on the right and wooing the electorate of Jewish settlers favorable to the annexation of large swathes of the West Bank, he spoke of "a historic and unique opportunity" to apply the sovereignty of the country over the colonies "in Judea and Samaria and in other key places ”.
An already de facto annexation on the ground?
The fact remains that in Israel, the idea divides the political class and society. The Jerusalem Democratic Institute, a Jerusalem-based research center, released a survey in early June that shows that only 50% of Israelis support the annexation project.
For their part, a certain number of Israeli security officials, in post or in retirement, oppose behind the scenes the annexation, believing that there is nothing to gain by including in the law a situation which, from anyway, already exists de facto on the ground.
Indeed, from a demographic point of view, the colonization of the West Bank, which has accelerated under the leadership of Benjamin Netanyahu, in power without interruption since 2009, has changed the situation in zone C. According to relayed figures by the Israeli media, most of the 450,000 settlers live there, compared to 200,000 to 300,000 Palestinians.
Furthermore, from an administrative point of view, the Hebrew State retains control over security, planning and construction matters and imposes movement, access and construction restrictions on the Palestinians, to whom Israel rarely grants planning permission in this area.
In 2016, the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights estimated that Israeli policy in Area C creates a "highly coercive environment that forces [the Palestinians] to leave". A policy deemed "systematic and general", which, according to the UN, prevents the Palestinian population from developing, from accessing water resources, pastures, agricultural land and even basic services.
"All these policies, which have been carried out for years, be it the transfer of Palestinians, the construction of settlements, the classification of land in the military zone, were aimed at taking as much land as possible with a minimum of Palestinians, "said Majed Bamya, Palestinian diplomat to the UN, to France 24.
It remains to be seen whether Benjamin Netanyahu will opt for a maximalist approach with the attachment to Israel of the Jordan Valley and a hundred settlements, or a minimalist approach by targeting a handful of settlements in zone C.
Whatever his choice, he will have to, despite international criticism and objections, notably the UN and European ones, speed up the process because a defeat of Donald Trump in November in the presidential election, could thwart his project.
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