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Armed settlers look on at nearby Palestinian towns from their security outpost
in Yitzhar, West Bank. Israeli politicians have long sought to find ways to
permanently seize the occupied West Bank . Photograph: Marcus Yam/Los Angeles
Times/Getty Images
View image in fullscreen
Armed settlers look on at nearby Palestinian towns from their security outpost
in Yitzhar, West Bank. Israeli politicians have long sought to find ways to
permanently seize the occupied West Bank . Photograph: Marcus Yam/Los Angeles
Times/Getty Images
Israel

This article is more than 1 month old


IDF TRANSFERS POWERS IN OCCUPIED WEST BANK TO PRO-SETTLER CIVIL SERVANTS

This article is more than 1 month old

‘Actual annexation’ taking place, says NGO analyst, as legal powers transferred
to officials led by far-right Bezalel Smotrich


Peter Beaumont in Jerusalem
Thu 20 Jun 2024 10.32 EDTLast modified on Fri 21 Jun 2024 12.55 EDT
Share



The Israeli military has quietly handed over significant legal powers in the
occupied West Bank to pro-settler civil servants working for the far-right
minister Bezalel Smotrich.

An order posted by the Israel Defense Forces on its website on 29 May transfers
responsibility for dozens of bylaws at the Civil Administration – the Israeli
body governing in the West Bank – from the military to officials led by Smotrich
at the defence ministry.



Smotrich and his allies have long seen control of the Civil Administration, or
significant parts of it, as a means of extending Israeli sovereignty in the West
Bank. Their ultimate goal is direct control by central government and its
ministries. The transfer reduces the likelihood of legal checks on settlement
expansion and development.



Israeli politicians have long sought to find ways to permanently seize, or
annex, the occupied West Bank , which it captured in 1967 and where millions of
Palestinians live.

Michael Sfard, an Israeli human rights lawyer, said: “The bottom line is that
[for] anyone who thought the question of annexation was foggy, this order should
end any doubts. What this order does is transfers vast areas of administrative
power from the military commander to Israeli civilians working for the
government.”

It is the latest coup for Smotrich, who became finance minister and a minister
in the defence ministry after a coalition agreement between his far-right
political party and prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s Likud party.

The Civil Administration is principally responsible for planning and
construction in Area C of the West Bank – the 60% of the Occupied Palestinian
Territories under full Israeli administrative and security control – as well as
enforcement against unauthorised construction, whether by Israeli settlers or by
Palestinians.

View image in fullscreen
Bezalel Smotrich became finance minister and a minister in the defence ministry
after a coalition agreement between his far-right party and prime minister
Benjamin Netanyahu’s Likud party. Photograph: Ronen Zvulun/AFP/Getty Images


The transfer of laws, which was largely unremarked upon in Israel, follows a
years-long campaign by pro-settlement politicians to accrue many of the legal
powers previously wielded by the military chain of command.

The laws cover everything from building regulations to the administration of
agriculture, forestry, parks and bathing locations. Lawyers have long warned
that transferring them from military to political control would risk bringing
Israel into conflict with its responsibilities under international law. After
entering government, Smotrich moved quickly to approve thousands of new
settlement homes, legalise previously unauthorised wildcat outposts, and make it
more difficult for Palestinians to build homes and move around.

Reports in the Israeli media say US officials have privately discussed the
possibility of imposing sanctions on Smotrich over his destabilising impact on
the West Bank, where he lives in a settlement that is illegal under
international law.

Netanyahu has become more reliant on the support of Smotrich and other far-right
elements of his coalition government since the moderate former defence minister
Benny Gantz quit Israel’s emergency war cabinet in a row over strategy in the
Gaza war and how to bring home Israeli hostages held by Hamas.

Smotrich has made no secret of his desire to carve out his own stronghold in the
ministry of defence to pursue his policies, downplaying the significance as
merely technical.

In April, Smotrich appointed a long-term ideological ally, Hillel Roth, as the
deputy in the Civil Administration with responsibility for enforcing building
regulations in settlements and outposts.

Roth is a former resident of Yitzhar, a West Bank settlement with a reputation
for violence and extremism. He served as an official with Bnei Akiva, an NGO
linked to Smotrich’s Religious Zionist party.

Sfard said the transfer meant legal power in the West Bank was now in the hands
of “an apparatus headed by an Israeli minister … whose only interest is to
advance Israeli interests”.

Equally important, Sfard said, was that although the head of the Civil
Administration is an officer subordinate to the military command, Roth is a
civilian who answers to Smotrich.

Sfard’s view echoes a legal opinion published by three Israeli jurists last year
who warned that transferring powers from the military would amount to annexation
in law, as Smotirch “considers himself committed first and foremost to advancing
the interests of Israeli settlers in the West Bank, rather than the welfare of
Palestinian residents”.

Mairav Zonszein, a senior analyst for Israel-Palestine at Crisis Group, said:
“The big story is that this is no longer ‘creeping annexation’ or ‘de facto
annexation’, it is actual annexation.

“This is the legalisation [and] normalisation of a long-term policy. Smotrich is
basically re-establishing the way in which the occupation works by taking a
large part out of the hands of the military.

“Half the people he has brought in to the defence ministry are from [the
pro-settler Israeli NGO] Regavim. The same people who worked at Regavim to
disposess Palestinians in Area C are now in government positions.”

Explore more on these topics
 * Israel
 * Israel-Gaza war
 * Palestinian territories
 * Middle East and north Africa
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