The Quiet Conquest of the West Bank and the Death of the Oslo Accords
Mariam Barghouti Al Jazeera
February 19, 2026 Click here for the article
Palestinian-American writer Mariam Barghouti argues that Israel's newly approved plan to register Palestinian lands in the West Bank as "state land" represents not a new escalation but the latest phase of a long-standing strategy of administrative annexation. The Israeli cabinet, driven by far-right ministers Smotrich, Levin and Katz, has allocated 244 million shekels (approximately $79 million) and created 35 new positions to carry out land registration in Area C — more than 62% of the West Bank — through Israel's Ministry of Justice, effectively shifting the territory from military to civilian Israeli governance.
Barghouti traces this strategy to the Oslo Accords, which divided the West Bank into Areas A, B and C as a supposedly temporary arrangement, leaving Area C under full Israeli control and making it, in her words, "the real battlefield." She draws a direct parallel to post-1948 land seizures, where the Absentees Property Law absorbed lands from Palestinians displaced or physically prevented from accessing their properties — a dynamic she sees repeating today as settler violence, military closures and administrative barriers push Palestinians off lands that are then reclassified as absentee or state property. Once entered into the Israeli registry, she argues, such designations become legally irreversible — transforming temporary military seizure into permanent territorial absorption.
"Rather than tanks, bombs and dramatic declarations of territorial conquest, Israel is lowering both regional and international alarm by consolidating land through perceived bureaucracy."
"Sometimes war exists in the subtleties, and the absence of relentless bombing does not mean the absence of war."
"Once land is entered into the Israeli registry as 'state land', it becomes a legal reality far more difficult to reverse than a temporary military seizure."
Palestinian-American writer Mariam Barghouti argues that Israel's newly approved plan to register Palestinian lands in the West Bank as "state land" represents not a new escalation but the latest phase of a long-standing strategy of administrative annexation. The Israeli cabinet, driven by far-right ministers Smotrich, Levin and Katz, has allocated 244 million shekels (approximately $79 million) and created 35 new positions to carry out land registration in Area C — more than 62% of the West Bank — through Israel's Ministry of Justice, effectively shifting the territory from military to civilian Israeli governance.
Barghouti traces this strategy to the Oslo Accords, which divided the West Bank into Areas A, B and C as a supposedly temporary arrangement, leaving Area C under full Israeli control and making it, in her words, "the real battlefield." She draws a direct parallel to post-1948 land seizures, where the Absentees Property Law absorbed lands from Palestinians displaced or physically prevented from accessing their properties — a dynamic she sees repeating today as settler violence, military closures and administrative barriers push Palestinians off lands that are then reclassified as absentee or state property. Once entered into the Israeli registry, she argues, such designations become legally irreversible — transforming temporary military seizure into permanent territorial absorption.
"Rather than tanks, bombs and dramatic declarations of territorial conquest, Israel is lowering both regional and international alarm by consolidating land through perceived bureaucracy."
"Sometimes war exists in the subtleties, and the absence of relentless bombing does not mean the absence of war."
"Once land is entered into the Israeli registry as 'state land', it becomes a legal reality far more difficult to reverse than a temporary military seizure."
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