PODCAST: Where is the PA as Israel annexes the West Bank?

Dalia Hatuqa unpacks the bureaucratic transformation of Israel’s control over the occupied territory, and the Palestinian Authority’s inability to confront it.

By +972 Magazine February 27, 2026 | Edit

Dalia Hatuqa. (Courtesy)

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Episode transcript

Earlier this month, the Israeli security cabinet approved a series of measures that reshape the legal status of the West Bank, transforming the decades-old military occupation into a more permanent form of rule. Rather than a dramatic declaration of annexation, what we are witnessing is a quieter bureaucratic transformation through legal mechanisms and administrative restructuring — but with far-reaching consequences.

In this episode of The +972 Podcast, Dalia Hatuqa — a journalist from Ramallah, now based in Amman, who has covered Palestinian affairs for over 25 years — unpacks the significance of these developments and what they mean for Palestinians themselves. In the face of these moves, and in the shadow of the genocide in Gaza, the Palestinian Authority has never looked so weak, but Hatuqa finds dynamism and strength in a new generation of Palestinian political organizing.

Additional reading:

Dalia Hatuqa’s archive at +972

Has Israel crossed the annexation threshold in the West Bank?

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