Taking the West Bank

( Middle East Monitor ) – Israel has erected “a formal, full-fledged apartheid regime,” the editorial of Haaretz newspaper said yesterday, in a stark warning about the direction of the occupation state. Drawing attention to measures introduced by the far-right government led by Benjamin Netanyahu, Haaretz’s editorial said that they include the contentious decision to grant Israel’s finance minister, Bezalel Smotrich, control over the occupied West Bank.

For decades, Israel has governed the occupied Palestinian territories beyond the 1949 Green (Armistice) Line through a military administration. Indeed, that is a “principle of international law”. An agreement was reached during January’s coalition talks, however, to place the occupied territories under civilian rule.

“Once the agreement is implemented, Smotrich will in effect become the governor of the West Bank, holding powers that will allow him to control nearly almost all areas of life there, including planning, building and infrastructure, which he intends to use to expand the settlement enterprise and stop all Palestinian development,” said Haaretz.

Source: Haaretz: Israel has erected ‘a formal, full-fledged apartheid regime’