Security & Diplomacy
Sovereignty in Area C
Israel should apply its own law to the settlements and Area C.
Area C is about 60% of the West Bank and holds every Israeli settlement. It has been under military administration since 1967.
What is at stake
Oslo split the West Bank into Areas A, B and C. Area C — about 60% of the territory, and where every Israeli settlement sits — is still under Israeli military and civil administration, an arrangement meant to be temporary. Sovereignty would make Israeli law permanent there. The idea returns in every coalition negotiation.
The case for
- Settlement residents live under military orders. Sovereignty would give them the same courts, planning rules and rights as other citizens.
- Area C is the high ground above the narrow coastal plain where most Israelis live. Nothing can replace it.
- The Oslo arrangement was meant to be temporary. Thirty years of legal limbo serve nobody living there.
The case against
- Annexation would bring sanctions and put the peace treaties with Egypt and Jordan, and the Abraham Accords, at risk.
- It would close off any prospect of Saudi normalisation.
- Absorbing the territory forces a choice: citizenship for its Palestinian residents, or governing them permanently without a vote.
Both sides get the same number of points at comparable length. That is a rule of this site, not a coincidence.
What the next Knesset could decide
A government can extend Israeli law to specific areas by cabinet decision, and the Knesset can pass a sovereignty bill. Coalition agreements have both included and frozen such commitments. The budget also sets settlement infrastructure spending.