Experts Warn Imposing Israeli Law on West Bank as Systematic Deportation
West Bank, MINA – Palestinian experts described Israel’s approval of a plan to apply Israeli law to constructions in the southern part of the occupied West Bank as a continuation of a policy of deportation of Palestinians.
As reported by Anadolu Agency on Sunday, Israeli state television reported on June 28 that the Security Cabinet, at the request of Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich, approved the legalization of five illegal settlements in Area B of the occupied West Bank, inhabited by Israelis who usurped Palestinian land.
Describing it as “the most dangerous challenge facing the Palestinian people since the Nakba,” Mustafa Barghouti, the head of the Palestinian National Initiative (PNI), said in a post on X that the decision aims to completely seize the civilian authority of the Palestinian Authority (PA) in Area B of the West Bank.
Smotrich’s plan includes stripping the PA of executive powers in the southern West Bank and applying Israeli law in Area B, which is under Palestinian civil and administrative control.
“The political meaning of applying Israeli laws in Area B is to undo the powers of the Palestinian Authority and weaken it by effectively canceling the administrative divisions in the Oslo Accords between the Palestine Liberation Organization and Israel,” political analyst Ashraf Bedr told Anadolu.
Bedr said the extremist Israeli government is trying to eliminate all hopes of establishing a Palestinian presence, which could be seen by Israel as a threat to the Zionist project, because it could turn into a demand for independence, a national identity or the realization of a national self.
He said the national religious current in Israel desires to annex Area C under the plan announced in 2014 and to give its residents, numbering 50,000 according to Israeli estimates and 250,000 according to Palestinian estimates, a “blue Israeli identity.”
When Israel announced its annexation of Jerusalem in 1980, it did not grant Israeli citizenship to its Palestinian residents, but instead gave them blue-colored Israeli IDs that served as permanent residency permits.
Regarding Area A, Bedr said Israel is not interested in the territory, but rather in getting rid of its residents from governing any entity, be it local, tribal or municipal bodies.
Although not included in Smotrich’s draft plan, Bedr said the area is not safe, stressing that Palestinians accused of organizing attacks against Israel continue to have their homes demolished in the area. (T/RE1/P2)
Mi’raj News Agency (MINA)
