A widening chorus of states and international bodies has pushed back against recent steps taken by Israel that point towards the permanent absorption of the West Bank. Speaking from New York, diplomats warned that such moves harden realities on the ground and erase the possibility of a negotiated future, turning what should be temporary control into irreversible rule.

The message was unambiguous: altering the land’s legal standing and reshaping its population violates established principles of international law. Those gathered stressed that measures affecting territory occupied since 1967, including East Jerusalem, are not administrative tweaks but deliberate acts that predetermine outcomes without the consent of the people who live there. In a region already scarred by a genocidal war, they said, annexation would deepen instability rather than deliver security.

Reference was also made to recent legal guidance affirming the right of the Palestinian people to self-determination and rejecting policies that entrench settlement expansion or enable forced displacement. The signatories underlined their readiness to move beyond statements, signalling that international law provides tools not only to describe violations but to respond to them. What is at stake, they argued, is not a technical dispute over borders, but the survival of a rules-based order that protects peoples under occupation.