Our Wednesday News Analysis | Opinion First Gaza, then the world: The global danger of Israeli exceptionalism

Displaced Palestinians, living among the rubble in makeshift tents set up in the Almuqawsi area, struggle for survival during harsh winter conditions in Gaza City, Gaza on February 1, 2026. [Ahmed Jihad Ibrahim Al-arini – Anadolu Agency]

It is often argued that Israel, a self-described democracy, still lacks a formal constitution because such a document would force it to define its borders—a problematic prospect for a settler-colonial regime with an insatiable appetite for expansion.

Consider Israel’s relentless assault on UNRWA, the UN-mandated body responsible for the survival of millions of Palestinian refugees. For decades, Israel has sought the dismantling of UNRWA for one reason: it is the only global institution that prevents the total erasure of Palestinian refugee rights.

While many nations occasionally resort to a “state of exception” to deal with temporary crises, Israel exists in a permanent state of exception. This Israeli exceptionalism is the very essence of the instability that plagues the Middle East.

The concept of the state of exception dates back to the Roman justitium, a legal mechanism for suspending law during times of civil unrest. However, the modern understanding was shaped by the German jurist Carl Schmitt, who famously wrote that the “sovereign is he who decides on the exception.” While Schmitt’s own history as a jurist for the Third Reich serves as a chilling reminder of where such theories can lead, his work provides an undeniably accurate anatomy of raw power: it reveals how a ruler who institutes laws also holds the power to dismiss them, under the pretext that no constitution can foresee every possible crisis.

But there is another explanation: by operating on “Basic Laws” rather than a constitution, Israel avoids a comprehensive legal system that would align it with the globally accepted foundations of international law. Without a constitution, Israel exists in a legal vacuum where the “exception” is the rule. In this space, racial laws, territorial expansion, and even genocide are permitted so long as they fit the state’s immediate agenda.

Isolating specific examples to illustrate this point is a daunting task, primarily because nearly every relevant pronouncement from Israeli officials—particularly during the genocide in Gaza—is a textbook study in Israeli exceptionalism.

These rights are not mere grievances; they are firmly anchored in international law, most notably via UN Resolution 194.

While UNRWA is not a political organization in a functional sense, its very existence is profoundly political. First, it stands as the institutional legacy of a specific political history; second, and more crucially, its presence ensures the Palestinian refugee remains a recognized political entity. By existing, UNRWA preserves the status of the refugee as a subject with the legal right to demand a return to historic Palestine—a demand that the “state of exception” seeks to permanently silence...

Read more: Opinion First Gaza, then the world: The global danger of Israeli exceptionalism

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THE CABINET APPROVES DECISIONS TO TAKE CONTROL OF LAND AND STRIP POWERS FROM THE PALESTINIAN AUTHORITY

Source: Jews for Justice for Palestinians
https://jfjfp.com/the-cabinet-approves-a-series-of-decisions-to-take-control-of-land-and-strip-powers-from-the-palestinian-authority/

Peace Now reports on 8 February 2026

West Bank Areas A, B, and C. Source: Political Geography Now: www.polgeonow.com

"As with all major decisions regarding settlement policy, this decision was made by the security cabinet rather than the full government,
so that the wording of the decision would remain classified and out of the public eye.

The only information conveyed to the public is the text of the press release issued by government ministers."

The cabinet decided today (8/2/26) on a series of measures that will allow Israelis to purchase land in the territories almost without limitation and without government oversight. The move will give a small number of settlers the power to determine political facts on the ground without government intervention, and will open the door to an industry of forged real-estate transactions. In addition, the cabinet decided to strip powers from the Palestinian Authority in Areas A and B and in Hebron. These decisions constitute a direct violation of the international agreements to which Israel is committed and are steps toward the annexation of Areas A and B.

Peace Now: “Netanyahu promised to topple Hamas in Gaza, but in practice he chose to topple the Palestinian Authority, cancel agreements that Israel signed, and impose de facto annexation on us—completely against the will of the public, Israel’s interests, and the clear position of President Trump. The cabinet’s decision shows that this is not about deepening annexation in Area C, but about dangerous and irresponsible sovereignty measures also in Areas A and B, and about breaking every possible barrier on the path to massive land theft in the West Bank. This is an extreme and irresponsible government dragging us toward disaster. All democratic forces in Israel must act now, in every possible way, to stop this!”

As with all major decisions regarding settlement policy, this decision was also made by the security cabinet rather than by the full government, so that the wording of the decisions would remain classified and out of the public eye. The only information conveyed to the public is the text of the press release issued by government ministers.

From the information published regarding the cabinet’s decisions, the following resolutions were adopted:

A. Land – Opening the West Bank as a “Real Estate Market” for Settlers and Creating Broad Potential for Corruption

1. Allowing direct land purchases by settlers

The cabinet decided to repeal the law applicable in the West Bank from the Jordanian period, under which only residents of the West Bank or companies registered there are permitted to purchase land. Repealing the prohibition will allow settlers to purchase land directly from Palestinians without the need to register a company. About a year ago, a bill in this spirit was introduced in the Knesset in an attempt to promote the change that the cabinet has now decided upon (see more information about the move and its implications)...

Read more: The Cabinet approves decisions to take control of land and strip powers from the Palestinian Authority

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TIMOR-LESTE AND THE FUTURE OF PALESTINE: LESSONS IN FREEDOM AND THE FAILURE OF POWER

Source: Counterpunch
https://www.counterpunch.org/2026/02/13/timor-leste-and-the-future-of-palestine-lessons-in-freedom-and-the-failure-of-power/

By Ibrahim Quraishi
Published February 13, 2026

Image Source: Alvaro1984 18 – CC BY 3.0

Palestine, by contrast, remains trapped in a frozen war — a permanent state of exception.

The Palestinian Authority controls barely 9% of the land it claims.

The West Bank remains under occupation;

Gaza lies in ruins, besieged and sealed.

Neither Israel nor Hamas shows any inclination to surrender control to a neutral transitional authority.

Without that, no international peacekeeping force can enter, and no functioning state can emerge.

Recognition — by over 157 countries, including France, Spain, Norway, and Ireland — is symbolically vital, but materially meaningless.

As with Timor, only the dominant patron — in this case, the United States — has the leverage to compel the occupying power to allow genuine sovereignty.

Yet Washington’s “peace process” has long been a euphemism for managing, not resolving, occupation.

“We will continue to kill the idea of a Palestinian state.” With those words, Israel’s far-right Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich abandoned any remaining pretense. What he announced on February 10, 2026, was not merely another policy adjustment, but a deliberate escalation, one that is designed to make it even easier for Jewish settlers to dispossess Palestinians of their land, permanently and irreversibly. Smotrich’s declaration reads less like public policy than a declaration of war on political reality itself: On Palestinians living under occupation, and on any Israeli who still dares to believe in the possibility of a two-state solution. Examined one by one, Israel’s current policies reveal a power imbalance so extreme that it can no longer be obscured by diplomatic language, especially in the wake of Gaza’s catastrophic devastation. One side is armed, sovereign, and protected; the other is fragmented, encircled, and endlessly punished.

One does not need to live in Ramallah or anywhere else in the West Bank to see what is coming. Israeli forces already besiege most of the Palestinian territory, negotiated under the infamous Oslo Accords, as they besiege city after city across the West Bank. Raids, closures, checkpoints, collective punishment—this is not a temporary security posture, but the daily architecture of control, structually normalized over time. Watching this unfold, I am increasingly reminded of Jamsheed Marker—an old colleague of my father’s and a family friend, whom UN Secretary, General Kofi Annan appointed as Special Envoy to East Timor between 1997 and 1999. Tasked with quietly helping broker peace and eventual independence, Marker worked largely outside the public spotlight. Yet the parallels between his overlooked mission and today’s hollow diplomatic choreography around Gaza and the West Bank are striking and deeply unsettling.

Since the atrocities of October 7, 2023, a number of American and Israeli negotiators — among them Robert Malley and Daniel Levy — have spoken openly about how deeply flawed and performative past peace efforts have been. Behind closed doors, they acknowledge what was long known: that the so-called “peace process” was never designed to deliver a Palestinian state...

Read more: Timor-Leste and the Future of Palestine: Lessons in Freedom and the Failure of Power