A new plan hatched by Israeli Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich would see over 60% of the West Bank territory become a de facto part of Israel, according to a leaked recording.
- The “dramatic” plan involves flexing permanent Israeli control over Area C, which comprises 61% of the embattled territory, “without the government being accused of annexing it.”
- Instead, the leaked recording suggests that Israel intends to “transfer administrative authorities” from the Israeli Defense Forces to a newly created governing body linked directly to the Israeli government in Tel Aviv.
- The plan would also seek to allocate a massive sum of money to increase Jewish settler expansion and widen “security measures” in the West Bank. Smotrich said the plan was developed over the last year and assured Israel’s Prime Minister Netanyahu was “fully onboard.”
Why it matters: The bombshell revelation comes amid global condemnation of the Israeli state, which currently faces allegations of war crimes and genocide and whose leaders have been issued arrest warrants for “crimes against humanity.”
- Smotrich, a right-wing hardliner who bizarrely identifies as a fascist, is known for using Jewish settlers to push the legal envelope regarding the internationally respected boundaries of the West Bank territories.
- He was recorded stating he wished to make a “dramatic change” to the DNA of the system,” to “avoid the West Bank from becoming part of a Palestinian state.”
- While much of the carnage being committed by Israel in the region has fallen to the Gaza Strip, the West Bank has suffered a laundry list of massacres, injustices, and other abhorrent crimes alleged to be committed by Israelis in recent years.
- Last week, sickening footage emerged from the West Bank city of Jenin, where IDF forces could be seen using a Palestinian man as a human shield tied to the front of a military vehicle as it slowly moved through a narrow street.
IDF uses a wounded Palestinian tied to the front of a truck as a human shield pic.twitter.com/Wbe2MGWin1
— HOT SPOT (@HotSpotHotSpot) June 23, 2024
What they’re saying: Many have come out to denounce the overreaching plan, calling it a “de facto annexation” of what little Palestinian land remains.
- “This is what we have been describing and warning against for years; a de-facto annexation of the West Bank in stages, which goes hand in hand with settlers’ violence to ethnically cleanse Area C from Palestinians,” said Khalil Tafakji, a Palestinian expert on Israeli settlements.
- “The plan is, in fact, a major change to the way the West Bank is dealt with in the Israeli system,” Tafakji said. “As it will be under the civil control of the Israeli government, which would facilitate settlement building and expansion in such a way that Area C will become a direct extension of Israel,” he continued.
- “Netanyahu, Smotrich, and their colleagues are annexing the West Bank right now. They are instituting apartheid and destroying the two-state solution. And if they succeed, Israel will cease to exist as a democratic country,” read an editorial to the Israeli Haaretz Newspaper.
What’s next: The risky move to “soft annex” the West Bank comes amid dangers of an escalating Middle Eastern war with resistance forces in neighboring states.
- According to US Intelligence agencies, a “large-scale confrontation” between Israel and Hezbollah is likely to break out if a ceasefire agreement cannot be made in the next several weeks.
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