Report: US warns Israel against handing the West Bank to Bezalel Smotrich

The administration of President Joe Biden has warned the Israeli government that it would consider any transfer of civilian authorities in the occupied West Bank to far-right Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich as a step toward annexation, Axios has reported citing two Israeli and US officials.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu will decide in the coming weeks if and how to implement his government’s coalition agreement. Smotrich, who is widely regarded as a radical far-right extremist has been awarded powerful ministerial portfolios under the coalition agreement. As well as being handed the position of minister of finance the pro-settler leader of the Religious Zionist Party has been made a minister in the Ministry of Security.

Read: Israel Netanyahu warned about repercussions of transferring West Bank authority to Smotrich

As one of the most senior members of the Israeli government, Smotrich is given authority over the two military units in charge of civilian policy in the occupied West Bank, as the coalition agreement stipulates, the 43-year-old will have unprecedented influence on the policy related to Israeli settlements.

According to Axios, Barbara Leaf, the assistant US secretary of state for Near East Affairs, met with national security adviser Tzachi Hanegbi and other senior Israeli officials in Jerusalem last week to discuss the escalation in the occupied West Bank.

Leaf informed her Israeli counterpart that the Biden administration is concerned about the possible transfer of some of the authorities in the West Bank from Israeli Defence Minister Yoav Galant to Smotrich. The transfer would mean that a civilian authority is granted power over territory under military occupation.

Since Israel occupied the West Bank in 1967, it has been administered by the Israeli Defense Ministry. Though Jewish settlers live under civilian rule, Palestinians are governed through a military regime. Israel has never formally annexed the West Bank, but nevertheless the different legal systems based on race has been described by major human rights group as apartheid.

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