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Israeli ministers seeking complete annexation of West Bank

May 8, 2017 at 10:46 am

Israeli military authorities and personals standing guard in West Bank [Najeh Hashlamoun/Apaimages]

Israeli ministers are looking to apply Israeli laws passed by the Knesset on the West Bank and end the distinction between occupied territory under international law and Israeli state land.

Image of Israeli Tourism Minister Yariv Levin [Reuven Kapuchinski/Wikipedia]

Image of Israeli Tourism Minister Yariv Levin
[Reuven Kapuchinski/Wikipedia]

Minister of Justice Ayelet Shaked and Tourism Minister Yariv Levin are promoting a measure that would apply all Israeli governmental legislation to the occupied West Bank, reported Israeli news agency Ynet News.

According to the directive promoted by the ministers, every governmental law would automatically become an order issued by the general officer in the occupied West Bank.

Shaked and Levin, who head the Ministerial Committee on Legislation, decided to distribute the directive to all government ministers ahead of the Knesset’s summer session and the start of the committee’s work.

Read: The West Bank and Gaza are already being separated

Shaked, a member of the Jewish Home party, said:

It is impossible to accept a situation in which Israeli law does not address the 430,000 citizens of the State of Israel living in Judea and Samaria [the West Bank].

“Judea and Samaria are not Israel’s backyard, and from now on [the] ministerial committee will ask to clarify, with respect to every government law at its table, how the initiating ministry intends to treat the settlers.”

Her Likud peer added:

The settlement of Judea and Samaria is a fait accompli; it is not a temporary or transitory thing. The time has come for the State of Israel to treat all its citizens equally and apply all the same laws.

Currently, Israeli law does not apply in the occupied territory and maintains a legal distinction between Israel and the occupied territory. Instead the West Bank is governed by means of military orders.