Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich said Tuesday that Israel had completed a major move to strip the Palestinian-run Hebron municipality of planning and construction powers over the Jewish enclave in the West Bank city of Hebron and nearby Jewish holy sites, declaring: “Yesterday, we canceled the Hebron agreements.”
The move was finalized Monday night by the Higher Planning Council, the Israeli planning body that oversees construction in parts of the West Bank, following a security cabinet decision approved in principle on February 8 at Smotrich’s initiative.
According to officials involved in the matter, the decision ends planning and construction arrangements that had been in place since the 1997 Hebron Protocol, an agreement signed by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and PLO Chairman Yasser Arafat as part of the Oslo peace process.
Hebron is one of the most sensitive cities in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. It is home to a large Palestinian population, a small Jewish enclave under heavy Israeli security and the Cave of the Patriarchs, a site holy to both Jews and Muslims. Under the Hebron Protocol, the city was divided into two zones: H1, about 80% of the city, under Palestinian control, and H2, where Israel retained security control because of the Jewish community and holy sites there.
For nearly three decades, certain planning and construction actions in Jewish Hebron and at nearby holy sites required approval from the Hebron municipality or exceptional political authorization. The new decision transfers those powers to Israeli planning bodies.
The practical meaning is that planning, construction, development, preservation, accessibility and infrastructure work in the Jewish enclave and at sites including the Cave of the Patriarchs, the Tomb of Abner ben Ner, the ancient Sephardic cemetery and the Ashkenazi Chabad cemetery will now be advanced through Israeli authorities, without dependence on the Palestinian-run municipality.
Officials said the move also means the Hebron municipality will no longer provide some municipal services to the Jewish enclave, including garbage collection, or issue building approvals there. Instead, the enclave will rely fully on Israeli authorities and the military.
Smotrich, who serves both as finance minister and as a minister in the Defense Ministry with authority over civilian affairs in the West Bank, announced the move at a cornerstone ceremony for the new West Bank community of Doran in the southern Hebron Hills. Defense Minister Israel Katz also attended the ceremony.
“For many years, one of the most absurd Oslo clauses remained in place, with powers concerning the Jewish settlement in Hebron and the holy sites dependent on the terror municipality of Hebron,” Smotrich said. “Yesterday, we put an end to it.”
“This is far more than a planning step. This is a historic correction. We are continuing the revolution of regulating settlement, strengthening governance and deepening Israeli sovereignty in Judea and Samaria.”
Officials described the move as part of Smotrich’s response to European sanctions imposed on him, extremist settlers and settlement organizations over settlement activity and violence against Palestinians in the West Bank.
At the same ceremony, Katz said Israel was setting facts on the ground even without formally declaring sovereignty over the territory.
“The settlement is the anchor, and you are fulfilling the vision of the prophets,” Katz said. “Every action we advance, all one has to do is open the Bible and see the foundation.”
Katz also referred to Israel’s ongoing military operations in Gaza and Lebanon.
“In Gaza, we hold more than 60%, and maybe by the end of the ceremony we will already be at 70%,” he said. “In Lebanon, we reached Beirut, but not only that. We are thwarting tunnels and systematically destroying terror infrastructure in all the villages near the border. We are plowing through the villages. We are at 80% completion.”
He added that Israel does not intend to withdraw from security zones it controls, despite expected international criticism.
“We do not intend to leave the security zones, and there will be international criticism, but we do not intend to give them up,” Katz said.