NAKBA II

Smotrich launches annexation campaign to expel Palestinians from ‘Area B’ of West Bank

August 19, 2024 

Israeli Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich gives a speech in front of the Israeli Parliament in Jerusalem on June 3, 2024 [Saeed Qaq/SOPA Images/LightRocket via Getty Images]


Israeli Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich today launched an annexation campaign to expel Palestinians and demolish structures in ‘Area B’ of the occupied West Bank.

In a statement on X, the far-right politician detailed his recent visit to the area, which constitutes about three per cent of the occupied West Bank and falls under Palestinian civil control and Israeli security control.

He described the area as strategically vital as it will form part of the illegal Gush Etzion settlement cluster and connect the region with nearby Jerusalem.

Smotrich, who heads a pro-settler party and who himself is a settler, accused the Palestinian Authority of investing significant resources to create territorial continuity in the region, which he claims threatens Israeli control and causes environmental damage.

READ: West Bank Bedouin communities affected by Israel’s policy of forced displacement

He wrote: “The Palestinian Authority in concerted efforts with a great deal of money and energy is trying to take over the east, to create a territorial continuity from north to south, and also from east to west, thus essentially interrupting our continuity.”

“There is also a very, very serious scenic damage here, in one of the most valuable and important areas in the State of Israel.”

He added: “As I recall, about a month ago, my proposal to enforce the Wye Agreement, which mandates the protection of the agreed reserve against Palestinian construction and takeover, was approved in the political and security cabinet. In accordance with the decision, the authority for enforcement passed from the Palestinian Authority to the Civil Administration.”

This comes after Israeli media reported that the Israeli occupation government, at Smotrich’s request, approved the legalisation of five illegal settlements in Area B of the Occupied West Bank.

The Oslo II Agreement of 1995 divided the West Bank into three areas: “A”, which is subject to full Palestinian control; “B” is subject to Israeli security authority and Palestinian civil control; and “C” which is subject to Israeli civil, administrative and security control. The latter constitutes about 61 per cent of the total occupied West Bank area.

Israel’s illegal settlements are creeping deeper into the West Bank and taking up greater swathes of the area’s land, with occupation forces claiming some areas a “closed military zones” forcing Palestinians off their ancestral properties.