Bezalel Smotrich Seizes Hebron Planning Powers From Palestinian Authorities

Israel’s Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich announced that Israel has seized planning and construction powers at the Jewish and Muslim shrine in the occupied West Bank from Palestinian authorities, scrapping parts of an agreement in place since the 1990s.

Under the 1997 Hebron Agreement, Palestinians controlled planning and construction in the entire city, including the Jewish Tomb of the Patriarchs and the adjoining Muslim Ibrahimi Mosque, but Smotrich said he had given the final sign-off late on Monday to transfer the powers to Israeli authorities.

Al Jazeera

Smotrich said the “historic step” would deepen “Israeli sovereignty” in the West Bank, which Palestinians seek as the heart of a future independent state.

Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas’s office called the seizure of powers an “infringement upon the political and legal status of Hebron”, and a violation of international law.

The move comes as Israel is due to call an election by the end of October, with Smotrich “struggling in the polls,” according to ThePrint’s Reuters dateline from Jerusalem.

The General Secretariat of the Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) warned on Wednesday of “serious implications of Israeli measures aimed at altering the political, historical, and legal status of Hebron.”

The OIC said the latest measure is a decision by the Israeli finance minister to revoke the municipality’s authority over the Ibrahimi Mosque, the Old City, and surrounding areas, and to revoke the Hebron Agreement.

Al Jazeera

The OIC stressed that “Israel has no sovereignty over the Palestinian territory occupied since 1967, including the city of Hebron and its holy sites,” citing relevant United Nations and UNESCO resolutions.

In parallel, Reuters reporting cited Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas’s office calling the seizure of powers “a violation of international law,” while Smotrich framed the change as a “historic step” to strengthen “Israeli sovereignty.”

ThePrint’s Reuters report also tied the Hebron moves to a broader push by Israel’s security cabinet to make it easier for settlers to buy land in the West Bank and give Israeli authorities more enforcement powers in the territory.

Palestinians and Israeli officials framed the Hebron power transfer as a shift in governance over the Ibrahimi Mosque area, with the 1997 Hebron Agreement previously giving Palestinians planning and construction control across the city.

“Israel approves settler building plans in Palestinian West Bank city By Ali Sawafta and Dedi Hayun HEBRON, West Bank, June 17 (Reuters) - Israel on Wednesday approved the expansion of a Jewish school for settlers living in the centre of the Palestinian city of Hebron in the occupied West Bank, in a construction push that Palestinians say violates a decades-old agreement”

Al-Monitor

In a statement carried by Reuters, Smotrich said he was “continuing to build the Land of Israel in practice and to implement practical sovereignty in the settlements,” as Israel approved the expansion of a Jewish school for settlers living in the centre of the Palestinian city of Hebron.

Issa Amro, a Palestinian activist who lives in Hebron, said he feared the dismantling of parts of the Hebron Agreement would leave Palestinian residents without basic services and described the move as “It means ethnic cleansing of Palestinian families from their homes, and more displacement,”.

ThePrint’s Reuters report said U.N. bodies and most countries consider Israeli settlements in the West Bank illegal and consider their expansion a primary obstacle to Israeli-Palestinian peace and Palestinian statehood, while Israel rejects that view.

As the dispute over Hebron’s administrative control deepens, the OIC called on the international community “to fulfill its responsibilities towards the preservation and protection of the Ibrahimi Mosque, the Old City of Hebron and its historical landmarks,” describing them as integral to the territory of the State of Palestine.