Likud may move powers of running West Bank settlements to ministries

Israel’s leading Likud party might agree on moving powers of running settlement affairs to ministries instead of the Civil Administration, a condition set by the Union of the Right-Wing Parties to join the government coalition, Israeli radio reported yesterday.

The Civil Administration is part of the Defence Ministry which follows the government decisions and policies regarding both Palestinians the illegal Jewish settlers in the occupied West Bank.

The right-wing party called for reducing the powers of the Civil Administration to include only running the issues of Palestinians in the occupied territories.

The radio station said that if this was accepted, it would be an unprecedented step towards imposing Israeli sovereignty over the occupied West Bank, one of the main demands of the right-wing groups.

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