Rights group vows to fight Katz plan to transfer West Bank civilian enforcement from IDF to police

The Association for Civil Rights in Israel (ACRI) says it will use all means available to it to fight Defense Minister Israel Katz’s plan to transfer responsibility for civilian law enforcement from the military to the police.

It was unclear what impact such a measure would have on the ground. Israel has never formally annexed the West Bank, and therefore, the IDF has been responsible for enforcement in the area. In addition, the IDF already hands any suspects detained in the West Bank over to the police for interrogation or arrest.

In his announcement, Katz seemed to be implying he wanted police to be fully in charge of handling settlers and for the military to wash its hands of the issue.

ACRI says the move “is not a simple division of labor between agencies but a step towards annexation, in practice and in law: it places occupied territory under Israeli civilian rule and treats it as part of the state, while Israel holds no sovereignty there.”

ACRI also says it violates the attorney general’s determination that an outgoing government cannot create “irreversible facts” during an election period.

“ACRI argues that Katz’s initiative is exactly what that rule aims to prevent: a new and politically charged move, taken without professional staff work, opposed by the security and police officials who would have to carry it out, and structurally hard to undo once the powers have moved,” it says in a statement.

“For years, Palestinian residents of the West Bank have lived under severe and relentless settler violence. The forces bound by law to protect them have utterly failed to do so, and have often supported and enabled that violence,” says ACRI Executive Director Noa Sattath.

“Thousands of families have already left their homes because protection never came. We will use every legal means available to have this decision revoked,” she says.