Welcome to FMEP’s Weekly Settlement & Annexation Report. To subscribe to this report, please click here.
September 26, 2025
- Trump Says No to Israeli Annexation
- United Nations Adds 68 New Companies to List of Businesses Supporting the Settlement Enterprise
- Bonus Reads
Trump Says No to Israeli Annexation
President Trump told reporters in the Oval Office that he “will not allow” Israel to formally annex the West Bank, saying further “It’s been enough. It’s time to stop now.” Netanyahu has reportedly been preparing an de jure annexation plan to appease members of his cabinets, framed as a response to international recognition of a Palestinian state. However, a senior government official has told the press that Trump actually helped Netanyahu out of yet another jam, providing him cover with his coalition partners to defer formal annexation and preserve the Abraham Accords.
International pressure against annexation has continued to mount, including new warnings from Saudi Arabia and France and a lot of attention at the UN gathering this week in NY. Nonetheless, Israeli officials surrounding Netanyahu have taken to social media to react to Trump’s comments and urge Netanyahu to move forward with unilateral annexation. On the same day as Trump’s comments, Israeli Foreign Minister Gideon Sa’ar told a reporter that Israel is considering areas of the West Bank that are not under PA control, saying Israel has no interest in annexing Palestinians. This plan hints at a plan introduced by Smotrich weeks before to annex 82% of the West Bank, leaving six discontiguous Palestinian population centers under Palestinian control, surrounded entirely by Israel.
United Nations Adds 68 New Companies to List of Businesses Supporting the Settlement Enterprise
The United Nations updated its database of businesses involved in building, maintaining, securing, and servicing Israeli settlements in the West Bank, East Jerusalem, and the Golan Heights.Sixty-eight new companies were added to the list, including German construction giant Heidelberg, while seven companies were removed from the list.
Ravina Shamdasani, spokesperson of the UN human rights office said in a statement:
“Businesses working in contexts of conflict have a due diligence responsibility to ensure their activities do not contribute to human rights abuses. We call on businesses to take appropriate action to address the adverse human rights impacts of their activities.”
As a reminder, on February 12, 2020, following nearly four years of delay, the UNHRC published a (non-comprehensive) database of businesses involved in building, maintaining, securing, and servicing Israeli settlements in the West Bank, East Jerusalem, and the Golan Heights. The database was requested by members of the Council in March 2016, in order to assist member states in complying with international legal obligations with regards to doing business with companies involved in activities which violate the human rights of people around the world. The publication of the database was repeatedly been delayed due to heavy pressure from Israel and the United States, neither of which are members of the Human Rights Council. Even before its publication, Israel and the U.S. argued that the database would by definition be anti-Israel and antisemitic. From the start they also labeled the database a “blacklist,” even though the database itself neither calls for nor imposes any punitive consequences on the listed businesses.
Bonus Reads
- “Top Israeli Official Overseeing West Bank Land Removed After Disputes With Smotrich Allies” (Haaretz, 9/24/25)
- “Settler Takeover or Hotel? Fate of One of Israel’s Most Beautiful Buildings Now in Doubt” (Haaretz, 9/21/25)
- “Israeli Police Didn’t Actually Investigate the Settler Incident, but Still Made a Firm Conclusion” (Haaretz, 9/26/25)