Israel’s West Bank measures prompt international condemnation

Israel has announced measures to tighten its control of the West Bank, extending authority into areas currently under Palestinian administration. The security cabinet passed changes aimed at strengthening settlements and pre-empting the emergence of an independent sovereign Palestine; the measures also make it easier to establish land ownership and for non-Arabs to buy property.

It was not initially clear when the new rules would take effect but they require no further approval. “We will continue to kill the idea of a Palestinian state,” Katz said in a joint statement with the finance minister, Bezalel Smotrich. The measures repeal a law from the era of Jordanian rule before 1967 that banned sale of land to non-Arabs, and transfer authority over building licences in Hebron from the Palestinian-run municipality to the Israeli civil administration, the army’s occupation authority.

That transfer could violate a 1997 Hebron protocol dividing the city into two sectors.

Israel, West Bank

israel, west bank, settlements, palestinian state, hebron, land ownership, civil administration, security cabinet, bezalel smotrich, jordanian law