New Israeli arrangements for the occupied West Bank, announced over the weekend, are expected to accelerate the annexation of the territory, ease the purchase of land by settlers and push Palestinians into increasingly isolated enclaves.
What will Israel’s new move change in the West Bank?The full text of the latest decision remains classified, but some details were released in a statement. It is unclear when the new rules will take effect, but they no longer require approval.
Below are the key changes expected to reshape the West Bank
– Easy land purchase by settlers? –
Far-right Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich, a security cabinet member who himself lives in a settlement, said the measures would make it easier for settlers to buy land in the West Bank, occupied by Israel since 1967.
Hitherto, land acquisition for settlers was usually done through intermediary companies.
The new measures repeal a decades-old law that barred Jews from directly purchasing land in the West Bank.
“It would allow Jews to buy land in Judea and Samaria, just like in Tel Aviv or Jerusalem,” Smotrich said.
Under the new rules, Israelis or companies registered in their names will no longer need special permission from the state to complete land transactions.
Peace Now, an Israeli anti-settlement watchdog, said the permit system was intended to “prevent fraud and prevent settler real-estate ventures that contradict government policies”.
More than 500,000 Israeli settlers live in the West Bank out of 3 million Palestinians.
Members of Netanyahu’s coalition, such as Smotrich or fellow far-right National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gavi, are staunch supporters of the settlement movement, and have long favored annexing the West Bank.
“Smotrich, Ben Gavir and the rest of them are telling us that this is their policy,” Palestinian political scientist Ali Jarbawi told AFP.
“Now it has paid off”.
The current Israeli government has fast-tracked settlement expansion, approving a record 52 settlements by 2025.
– Will Palestinians live in enclaves? –
The moves would increase Israeli control over parts of the West Bank where the Ramallah-based Palestinian Authority exercises power.
Under the Oslo Accords of 1990, the West Bank was divided into Areas A, B and C under Palestinian, mixed and Israeli rule respectively.
According to Smotrich, the new measures will extend Israel’s greater authority to A and B “with regard to water crimes, damage to archaeological sites and environmental risks that contaminate the entire region.”
Palestinian experts have warned that the initiatives will displace Palestinians living near archaeological sites, landfills or springs, with Jarbawi saying Israel “wants to drive Palestinians to small plots of land, basically, their main cities, enclaves”.
Yonatan Mizrachi of Peace Now said the moves would further weaken the Palestinian Authority, established under the Oslo Accords as an interim governing body to await the creation of a Palestinian state, accusing Israel of “advancing annexation”.
– Israel has more control over religious sites? –
The moves extend Israeli control over two major religious sites in the southern West Bank: Rachel’s Tomb near Bethlehem and the Cave of the Patriarchs in Hebron, sacred to both Jews, Christians and Muslims.
In Hebron, the largest Palestinian city in the West Bank, municipal bylaws will be amended to transfer building-permit authority in the area around the Cave of the Patriarchs, known to Muslims as the Ibrahimi Mosque, to COGAT, Israel’s military agency that oversees civilian affairs in the Palestinian territories.
Asma al-Sharbati, deputy mayor of Hebron, called the move “the most dangerous ongoing Israeli trend”, adding that settlement expansion was taking place at a “fast pace”.
Rachel’s Tomb, currently managed by the Bethlehem municipality, will likewise be placed under a newly created Israeli authority.
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