Smotrich’s Plan: Ongoing violations of international laws

“Complete and final reversal of the Oslo Accords, a return to square one, and an entrenchment of the blatant occupation logic,” Arab League Secretary-General Ahmed Aboul-Gheit said on June 29 strongly condemning an Israeli plan to legalise settlement outposts in the West Bank.

On June 27 , according to Israeli state-owned Kan TV, the Israeli security Cabinet approved a plan proposed by Israeli Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich to counter the recognition of a Palestinian state by several countries and measures taken against Israel in international courts. The plan involves taking punitive measures against the PA, legalising five settlement outposts in the West Bank, and issuing tenders for constructing thousands of housing units in the settlements.

According to Smotrich’s proposal, five settlement outposts will be legalised in response to the five countries that recogrised a Palestinian state following the outbreak of the current Israeli-Palestinian conflict on October 7, 2023. While some Israeli ministers and military personnel reportedly expressed opposition to the plan, Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu did not state his position on the matter but temporarily suspended the session for consultations, according to Kan TV. Netanyahu last year decided to ease the process for approving new settlement construction, transferring authority from the defence minister, Yoav Gallant, to finance minister, Bezalel Smotrich. Smotrich, a leading far-right member of Netanyahu’s Cabinet, said earlier the way to prevent a Palestinian state that would endanger the state of Israel is to develop Jewish settlements.

“The goal is to change the DNA of the system for many, many years,” he said. Smotrich, who lives in a settlement himself, has opposed the creation of an independent Palestinian state and has also long advocated for the expansion of Jewish settlements that are considered illegal under international law and by much of the international community. Smotrich was quoted saying: “After October 7th it is a consensus in Israeli society. The way is to develop settlements and we are focusing on doing broad structural processes that will result in the State of Israel developing settlements in an orderly manner.”

Besides, Smotrich said that a separate civilian system had been created for the occupied West Bank, even as the defence ministry remained in control of the area. “We created a separate civilian system, there is an office within the ministry of defence. There is a minister there. There is an administration there, it’s like an office, there is a CEO for the administration, he is accepted as the CEO of a government office, there is a whole system within the administration,” Smotrich added.

As more countries call for an independent Palestinian state, Smotrich spoke about the extensive planning powers of the minister and the prospect of developing mass transit and road systems in the West Bank over the next few years to encourage settlement there.

“This is a revolution: This is how you bring a million people to Judea and Samaria,” Smotrich said, using the term by which many Israelis describe the occupied territory. Moreover, Smotrich said he was able “to convince the prime minister”, Benjamin Netanyahu, about creating a civilian administration in the West Bank. However, Netanyahu repeatedly stressed Israeli constants, most notably not accepting the establishment of a Palestinian State despite frequent media talk in the West about the need for a two-state solution through direct negotiations between the Palestinian and Israeli parties. Israel has expanded settlements in the occupied West Bank over decades despite signing a series of peace agreements with the Palestinians in the 1990s, called the Oslo Accords, that envisaged the establishment of an independent Palestinian state in the West Bank and Gaza as part of a negotiated resolution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

Israel’s far-right finance minister Bezalel Smotrich said on June 24 that he plans to make the occupied West Bank part of Israel. “We will apply sovereignty over the West Bank, initially through actions on the ground and subsequently through legislation and formal recognition,” Smotrich said during a meeting for his Religious Zionist Party. Besidec Smotrich said his life’s work “is to thwart any possibility of establishing a Palestinian state in the heart of the country [Israel]”.

Israeli settlement activity deep within the West Bank has been non-stop since its Occupation on June 5th 1967. The goal behind this was to undermine the dream of establishing a Palestinian State, with Jerusalem as its capital.

Under international law, all Jewish settlements in the occupied territories are considered illegal. International resolutions, principles and agreements have been issued confirming this, denying any legal status for Zionist settlement or annexation, and demanding its abolition and the dismantling of settlements as occupation landmarks, including the settlements in the city of Jerusalem.

Estimates indicate about 720,000 settlers are living in 164 settlements and 116 outposts in the occupied West Bank and East Jerusalem. Smotrich’s illegal plan is the same as the Netanyahu government’s plan to directly annex the West Bank and block the Palestinians’ hopes of establishing their desired State.

UN Human Rights Chief Volker Türk last March deplored Israel’s actions regarding the occupied West Bank, saying the drastic acceleration in settlement building is exacerbating long-standing patterns of oppression, violence and discrimination against Palestinians. Besides, Türk said that the establishment and continuing expansion of settlements amount to the transfer by Israel of its own civilian population into the territories that it occupies, which amounts to a war crime under international law.

The size of existing Israeli settlements has expanded markedly and that the policies of the current Israeli government appear aligned, to an unprecedented extent, with the goals of the Israeli settler movement to expand long-term control over the West Bank, including East Jerusalem, and to steadily integrate this occupied territory into the State of Israel. The establishment and continuing expansion of illegal Israeli settlements are occurring alongside the displacement of Palestinians through Israeli settler and state violence, as well as through forced evictions, non-issuance of building permits, home demolitions and movement restrictions for Palestinians.

“The West Bank is already in crisis. Yet, settler violence and settlement-related violations have reached shocking new levels, and risk eliminating any practical possibility of establishing a viable Palestinian State,” Türk said. “Israel’s actions against the Palestinian population must cease immediately. The only way forward is to find a viable political solution that finally ends the occupation, establishes an independent Palestinian state and guarantees the realisation of the fundamental rights of the Palestinian people,” Türk added.

Najla Shahwan is a Palestinian author, researcher and freelance journalist