Smotrich Has Completed Israel’s Annexation of the West Bank
JVL Introduction
In an opinion piece for Haaretz, renowned Israeli human-right lawyer Michael Sfard describes the constitutional revolution recently effected in the West Bank.
In essence all the governing powers in the West Bank, except those directly relating to security, have been transferred from the army to an apparatus headed by Israeli Minister Bezalel Smotrich himself.
The powers include land management, planning and construction, enforcement against unpermitted construction, supervision and management of local authorities, professional licensing, trade and economy, management of nature reserves and archaeological sites…
It may sound mundane, but it is in reality dramatic. Previously territory under occupation the West Bank was managed by a military administration, notionally subject to international law, with responsibilities to the people under occupation.
Large parts of it are now run by someone responsible to Israel alone.
The principle that prohibits unilateral annexation of an occupied territory, at the core of the international rule-based order since WW2, has been shredded.
And, says Sfard “no one has stood up to object, not in Israel nor around the world.”
RK
This article was originally published by Haaretz on Thu 11 Jul 2024. Read the original here.
Smotrich Has Completed Israel's Annexation of the West Bank
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so very sad to pretend the “vibrant democracies of the West”, including of course Israel, have so debased the idea of international law, or sovereignty, of any form of humanity that this is acceptable to carry out such actions and provide no criticism, let alone prevention.
Manipulating all the time to have complete control, no one to answer to, the basis of Nazism and we know that International Law is pretty much impotent, purely because the US backed by the UK will veto any actions against the Israeli Government. Is there any hope for justice for the Palestinians, I would love to think there was but I cannot see how it could come about.
Until the governments in the US and UK hold Israel to account in a meaningful way, Israel will continue with its policy of annexation until there is nothing left of Gaza or the West Bank. While our focus is on the genocide in Gaza, Netanyahu and Smotrich have been busy removing the last hope for an independent Palestinian state.
For years, we in the West have supported a two state solution – so-called – at the same time as the actions of the Israeli government, and the words of its leaders, were making very clear that they would never allow such a solution, as they would never tolerate an independent Palestinian state. As an example of willful blindness to facts, our continued belief in the viability of the two state solution has few parallels.