After the Donald Trump administration decided to recognize Israeli sovereignty over the Golan Heights in March, the possibility of annexing Israeli settlements in the West Bank began making headlines. On April 6, three days before Israel held elections, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu announced, “We will move to the next stage — to the gradual extension of Israeli sovereignty in the areas of Judea and Samaria [West Bank],” and explained that he meant all the settlements, not just the large settlement blocs. The day before the balloting, Netanyahu honed his message, stating that he had already engaged the Americans in discussions on obtaining their consent to annex the settlements.

On April 10 in Al-Monitor, Shlomi Eldar asserted that Netanyahu’s fifth government would be a government of annexation. He went on to link the annexation of certain territories in the West Bank to the various right-wing parties granting Netanyahu immunity from indictment. That is exactly what is happening.

As part of the ongoing coalition negotiations, representatives of the United Right are calling on Netanyahu to keep his pre-election promise on annexation and to formalize it in the coalition agreements. Even that, however, is not enough for right-wing settlements supporters. They are also demanding that the law concerning the 2005 disengagement be revoked.

Prime Minister Ariel Sharon’s disengagement plan included the evacuation of all Israeli settlements in Gaza, along with four settlements in the northern West Bank: Homesh and Sa-Nur, north of Nablus, and Ganim and Kadim, east of Jenin. The land occupied by the evacuated settlements was not transferred to the Palestinian Authority, which controls Area A of the West Bank, but remained under the control of the Israel Defense Forces, with a ban on entry by Israeli civilians.