What difference for Palestinians if control is from IDF or police?

JVL Introduction

Palestinians in the West Bank are being killed, injured, displaced, property destroyed, animals stolen, land stolen, children being denied access to school, farmers access to their water – as well as their land and, well the list of terrorist attacks by Israeli settlers backed by Israeli forces is endless.  Yet there is a bureaucratic argument about whether or not enforcement powers in the West Bank should move from the Military to the police.  It appears that the concerns are “optics” but that ship has sailed (if you will pardon any mixed metaphors).

Technically the Israeli army has full control over that part of the West Bank where settlements are built but “…the police already operate in the West Bank in cases involving criminal offenses and public disturbances by Israelis”. Historically “the police operate in coordination with the military commander, not in his place.”

Given that Israelis are extremely rarely prosecuted for actions against Israelis and when a crime is committed, eg an Israeli child throwing stones in the unlikely event that there will be a court hearing, it would be in a civilian court and not a military one as would be the case for a Palestinian child.

Military officials are worried that the change that Katz wants would require changing the legal status of the West Bank, ie formally annexing the West Bank, which is what this government wants to do and has effectively done.  Indeed there has been one State rule for decades albeit with different legal systems.

Some of the opposition to the change is that it would, “and is intended to enable the establishment of settler outposts and farms”. The objection is made that “(t)he proposed transfer would leave the army without the authority to take enforcement action against them.”

If you have evidence of substantial enforcement action against settlers establishing outposts it has passed me by.  As always, Palestinians’ needs and rights are not under consideration nor, indeed, are Israel’s obligations as an occupying power to ensure that the needs of Palestinians are met.

This article was originally published by Ha'aretz on Sun 23 Aug 2026. Read the original here.