ICSPR: Transferring Law-Enforcement Powers over Settlers Is a Step Toward De Facto Annexation… Enough with Condemnations and Appeals; What Is Needed Is a National and International Strategy to Raise the Cost of the Israeli Occupation

Press Release

ICSPR: Transferring Law-Enforcement Powers over Settlers Is a Step Toward De Facto Annexation… Enough with Condemnations and Appeals; What Is Needed Is a National and International Strategy to Raise the Cost of the Israeli Occupation

The International Commission to Support the Rights of the Palestinian People (ICSPR) is following with grave concern the directive issued by Israeli Defense Minister Israel Katz to the Israeli army to prepare a plan to transfer law-enforcement powers over civil cases involving settlers in the occupied West Bank to the Israeli police, thereby placing this portfolio under the authority of National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir. ICSPR stresses that the significance of this development does not lie merely in the transfer of jurisdiction between Israeli institutions, but rather in its political, legal, and institutional implications, as it constitutes an additional step toward integrating settlements into the institutional structure of the occupying state and consolidating the de facto annexation of increasingly large parts of the occupied West Bank.

ICSPR considers that reducing these crimes to the individual roles of Smotrich and Ben-Gvir, despite the grave nature of their roles in supporting colonial settlement, annexation, incitement, and providing political and security cover for settler violence, obscures the essence of the broader project. The issue concerns the occupation’s transition from administering settlements to institutionally and legally integrating them into the legal, security, and economic structure of the occupying state. As a result, settlers are increasingly subject to Israeli civil institutions, while Palestinians living on the same land remain subject to a military occupation regime. This deepens a discriminatory and racially unequal dual legal reality and consolidates the effects of annexation before any formal declaration of annexation takes place.

ICSPR warns that colonial annexation does not necessarily begin with a formal legal declaration. Rather, it is gradually achieved through land confiscation, settlement expansion, the legalization of settlement outposts, forcible displacement, settler violence, the transfer of powers, and the integration of settlements into Israel’s legal, administrative, and economic structures. This is demonstrated by the escalating realities across the West Bank and East Jerusalem, where attacks, land seizures, the establishment of outposts, and attempts to uproot Palestinian communities are accompanied by military and political protection from the Israeli occupation army and government. This demonstrates that what is taking place is not a series of isolated incidents, but rather a continuous process: expanding colonial settlement, settler violence and terrorism, forcible displacement of the population, institutional integration, and ultimately de facto annexation.

ICSPR stresses that continued reliance solely on statements of condemnation, denunciation, and appeals is no longer an adequate response to an organized Israeli project aimed at altering the demographic and geographic reality and preventing the establishment of an independent Palestinian state. It therefore calls for a transition from condemnation to preventing the effects of violations and crimes and raising the cost of the occupation and colonial annexation through a unified national strategy bringing together the Palestine Liberation Organization, political forces, human rights institutions, civil society, and citizens. Such a strategy should unify mechanisms of confrontation, monitoring, documentation, litigation, popular mobilization, diplomatic, political, media, and economic action, as well as the protection of targeted Palestinian communities.

ICSPR calls for the establishment of a Palestinian Observatory for De Facto Annexation, tasked with systematically documenting land confiscation, settlement expansion, new outposts, displacement, settler violence and terrorism, Israeli legislation and measures, the transfer of powers, and the integration of settlements. These developments should be transformed into measurable databases and legal case files capable of supporting accountability. This would allow for monitoring the annexation process and identifying the responsibilities of, and beneficiaries from, the relevant actors, rather than treating each violation as an isolated incident.

ICSPR calls for activating international and domestic legal accountability wherever jurisdiction is available, particularly before the International Criminal Court, through comprehensive case files addressing settlement activity, forcible displacement, land seizure, settler violence, incitement, official protection, and the transfer of powers as interconnected components of a system of colonial control and annexation. Such efforts should identify political, security, and administrative responsibilities, chains of command and decision-making, and the actors who incite, finance, or provide protection and political cover, in order to ensure their accountability.

ICSPR calls for targeting the settlement economy by documenting companies, banks, institutions, contractors, security companies, infrastructure and service providers, and individuals involved in constructing, expanding, protecting, or economically integrating settlements. This information should be transformed into tools for legal action, diplomatic and parliamentary pressure, and accountability of investors, governments, and corporations, making settlement activity a high-cost and high-risk undertaking rather than a protected and profitable economic enterprise.

ICSPR calls for establishing civilian protection mechanisms for Palestinian communities and villages most exposed to displacement and settler violence. These mechanisms should include monitoring, early warning systems, legal assistance, documentation, humanitarian response, and direct communication with the United Nations and diplomatic missions, alongside the development of organized, peaceful, and civilian popular resistance and community protection committees. They should strengthen the resilience of communities, protect land and farmers, and prevent displacement, ensuring that the response does not begin only after a crime has occurred.

ICSPR calls for Arab, Islamic, and international action that goes beyond condemnation toward practical measures based on non-recognition of annexation or its consequences, preventing the financing of or investment in settlements and refusing to treat them as part of Israel, holding accountable the entities and individuals involved in the settlement and annexation project, and adopting targeted measures and sanctions in accordance with international law and national legislation. This should be accompanied by the establishment of an international parliamentary and human rights network capable of moving the issue from the level of diplomatic statements to legislation, accountability, and political and economic pressure.

ICSPR calls on the Palestinian leadership to move beyond a reactive approach and reliance on statements and appeals, and to adopt the principle of “action for action” as a practical framework for confrontation. This would transform the confrontation from a media reaction into a cumulative system of popular, legal, political, and economic pressure. It also calls for launching an inclusive national dialogue leading to a unified strategy to confront annexation, colonial settlement, occupation crimes, and forcible displacement; activating the institutions of the Palestine Liberation Organization; ending the internal division; and unifying political, legal, and diplomatic decision-making. External action must be linked to protecting people and land in targeted areas, because any strategy that fails to protect Palestinians on the ground will remain incomplete, regardless of its political strength.

ICSPR calls on the High Contracting Parties to the Fourth Geneva Convention to assume their legal and political responsibilities and convene an urgent meeting to adopt collective measures ensuring respect for international humanitarian law and the protection of civilians and civilian objects. They must reject recognition of any changes imposed by the occupation on the legal status of the occupied territory and work toward establishing a practical international coalition to protect the Palestinian people and prevent annexation, settlement expansion, and forcible displacement, while supporting accountability before competent international and national judicial mechanisms.

ICSPR calls on the United Nations General Assembly to assume its responsibilities in light of the Security Council’s failure to take the necessary measures, activate the available mechanisms under the “Uniting for Peace” framework, and adopt collective measures to prevent the consolidation of annexation and settlement activity. It further calls for supporting accountability mechanisms and imposing appropriate measures and sanctions on entities involved in grave violations, taking available action under the UN Charter, including consideration of the suspension or termination of Israel’s membership in the United Nations in accordance with the mechanisms stipulated in the Charter, until it complies with its obligations under international law and ends its occupation of the Palestinian territories.

ICSPR emphasizes that the international community does not lack evidence regarding settlement activity, annexation, settler violence, and settler crimes; rather, it lacks sufficient political will to transform the rules of international law into concrete measures and tangible costs. It is therefore time to move from “we reject settlement and annexation” to “we will prevent recognition of their consequences, hold accountable those who contribute to them, and prevent the occupation from benefiting from their outcomes.” International law is not protected by statements alone, but through measures that prevent the perpetrator from reaping the benefits of its violations.

ICSPR stresses that the current struggle must not be limited to opposing a single administrative decision, but must address a broader project aimed at restructuring the occupation and transforming the West Bank into a space for gradual annexation. The current stage requires a transition from condemnation to accountability, from appeals to pressure, from documentation to litigation, from rejecting annexation to preventing its consequences, and from reaction to practical initiative.

ICSPR emphasizes that colonial annexation does not become legitimate because it has continued for a long time; settlement activity does not become lawful because it has become a reality; and occupation does not become sovereignty merely through the reorganization of its tools and institutions. Settlement activity in the occupied Palestinian territory constitutes a grave violation of international humanitarian law and a blatant violation of United Nations resolutions and the advisory opinions of the International Court of Justice. Policies of land seizure, displacement, population transfer, and the consolidation of permanent control constitute a system of international crimes and violations requiring accountability and prosecution. Accordingly, the national and international responsibility today is to prevent normalization with this reality, protect the Palestinian people and Palestinian land, preserve the prospects for establishing a Palestinian state, raise the cost of settlement and colonial annexation and other occupation crimes, prosecute their perpetrators, and ensure that the occupying state does not escape the consequences of its violations.

ICSPR reaffirms its readiness to work with Palestinian, Arab, and international institutions to build an international human rights, diplomatic, and parliamentary coalition to confront annexation and settlement activity and to transform the protection of Palestinian land and people from a political slogan into a sustained program of action and accountability. Annexation begins when its consequences become an accepted reality; confrontation begins when we prevent the normalization of that reality. The occupation does not fear another statement it fears that every step toward annexation becomes more costly than the one before it.