A key member of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s coalition informed settlers in the Israeli-occupied West Bank that the government is covertly working to permanently alter the governance of the territory, solidifying Israel’s control without formally annexing it.
In a recorded speech from a private event earlier this month, Bezalel Smotrich suggested that the objective was to prevent the West Bank from becoming part of a Palestinian state.
Palestinians have long claimed that Israeli leaders are effectively trying to annex the West Bank by establishing settlements in strategic locations to hinder continuous Palestinian control over the area. “It’s been happening since 1967,” stated Ibrahim Dalalsha, Director of a political analysis group in Ramallah, West Bank. “This started long before Smotrich came into the picture,” he added.
Despite increasing international pressure to establish a Palestinian state, including the West Bank and Gaza, Mr. Smotrich’s remarks indicate that Israel is subtly strengthening its hold on the West Bank, making it more difficult to separate from Israeli control.
Smotrich’s Covert Strategy to Shift West Bank Governance to Civilian Control
While Mr. Smotrich’s opposition to relinquishing control over the West Bank is well-known, the official stance of the Israeli government is that the territory’s status remains subject to negotiations between Israeli and Palestinian leaders.
Israel’s Supreme Court has ruled that the country’s control over the West Bank constitutes a temporary military occupation managed by army generals rather than a permanent civilian annexation overseen by Israeli civil servants.
Smotrich’s spokesman, Eytan Fold, said the event was not a secret. Mr. Smotrich’s speech on June 9 at a West Bank gathering could challenge this position. In his address, he detailed a meticulously planned initiative to transfer authority over the West Bank from the Israeli military to civilians under his jurisdiction in the defense ministry.
Elements of this plan have been gradually implemented over the past 18 months, with some powers already shifted to civilians. “We created a separate civilian system,” Mr. Smotrich stated. To mitigate international scrutiny, the government has allowed the defense ministry to remain involved, creating the appearance that the military still governs the West Bank.
“This will be easier to justify in the international and legal context,” Mr. Smotrich explained, “so that it doesn’t appear as though we are pursuing annexation.”
As a lawmaker over the past decade, Mr. Smotrich attracted attention for regularly making extremist comments, including his call to destroy a Palestinian town, his support for segregation between Arabs and Jews in maternity wards, and his backing for Jewish landowners who will not sell property to Arabs. Paraphrase
Palestinians Claim Annexation Efforts Amid Israeli Denials
Israel took control of the West Bank from Jordan during the 1967 war with three Arab states and has since settled over 500,000 Israeli civilians, who are governed by Israeli civil law. In contrast, the approximately three million Palestinians in the territory are subject to Israeli military law.
Around 40 percent of the West Bank is administered by the Palestinian Authority, a semi-autonomous body dependent on Israeli cooperation for much of its funding. For decades, Israel’s Supreme Court has categorized Israel’s governance of the West Bank as a military occupation managed by a senior general and in line with international laws applicable to occupied territories.
The current ruling coalition rejects the term “occupation” while also publicly denying that the West Bank has been permanently annexed and placed under Israeli civilian authority. “The final status of these territories will be determined by the parties in direct negotiations,” the prime minister’s office stated in response to Mr. Smotrich’s speech, adding, “This policy has not changed.”
