Thread by @EpshtainItay

Purported annexation of occupied #Palestinian territory would was decreed yesterday by #Israel, subsuming functions of its military government into the metropolitan government and applying its internal law and institutions to occupied territory.

Following are the details:

Recent changes to #Israel’s Basic Law: The Government created a ministry within the Ministry of Defense responsible for the military government of occupied Palestinian territory. Handed to Religious Zionism leader, Bezalel Smotrich, it gives effect to the coalition agreement...

1. All “civilian affairs” in the West Bank will come under the authority of the Minister (Smotrich), and be delegated to the Deputy Heads of the Israeli Civil Administration (Deputy ICA), a non-uniformed political appointee of the Minister, from within his political base.

2.The Minister will oversee the transposition of Israeli internal law to all “civil matters” in occupied territory, to exclusively benefit #Israeli nationals, while maintaining the draconian measures of martial law – the law of belligerent occupation - for #Palestinians.

3.All ICA staff officers will report to the Deputy ICA, with powers and responsibilities transferred to him pursuant to a military decree. The Israeli military will have a cursory role, to maintain the facade of a military government established under the law of occupation #IHL.

4.All ICA staff officers will be appointed by the Minister, representing the various Israeli line ministries, and serving as an extension of Israel's metropolitan government to occupied territory, and quasi-political Israeli appointees ruling over Palestinians.

5.Spatial planning in the West Bank will come under the authority of the Minister, including authority over the High Planning Council, responsible for establishing and expanding settlements as well as considering Palestinian spatial plans and permit applications in Area C.

6.All matters related to the regularization of "informal" settlement outposts and satellite neighborhoods will come under the sole authority of the Minister, who can endorse 147 such outposts most disruptive to a contiguous future Palestinian State.

7.The ICA Enforcement Unit, responsible for the destruction of Palestinian-owned structures built in Area C, as well as the seizure and destruction of donor-funded humanitarian relief, will come under the sole authority of the Minister.

8.The Minister will have the authority to declare new ‘natural reserves’, a primary tool in the appropriation of Palestinian land (in areas A through C) and exclusion of Palestinians from land use across the entire West Bank.

9.All matters related to housing, land, and property rights, including land ownership settlement, surveying, and registration, will come under the sole authority of the Minister. This is the primary tool for expropriating land, and abrogating Palestinian ownership claims.

10.The planning and implementation of infrastructure across the West Bank (areas A through C) will come under the exclusive authority of the Minster, including surface roads, water and sanitation, energy and renewable energy, telecommunications, and waste management.

#Israel has annexed occupied #Palestinian territory in violation of international law. States committed in 2019 not to recognize it as lawful, and to cooperate in reversing such measures by attaching meaningful consequences to Israeli breaches. A line has been crossed.