Committee fast-tracks West Bank antiquities bill, amounting to de facto annexation, hoping to approve it before Knesset dissolution

The Knesset Education, Culture, and Sports Committee meets to prepare a controversial bill seeking to extend Israeli civilian control over antiquities in the West Bank for the second and third readings in the plenum, which would enshrine it into law. The proposal would bring an unprecedented change in the status of the West Bank, according to many, and would amount to de facto annexation.

Two additional committee sessions are scheduled for Tuesday and Wednesday to allow the bill to be voted into law before the expected proceedings to dissolve the Knesset begin. The bill passed its first reading last week.

“We are doing two things. One is creating an organized body in charge of our spiritual and cultural treasures in Judea and Samaria, and another is doing it through Israeli legislation,” says MK Amit Halevi (Likud), who sponsors the bill, referring to the West Bank by its biblical name.

If approved in its current form, the proposal will change the decades-long status quo in the West Bank by establishing a civilian “Judea and Samaria Heritage Authority” to assume responsibilities currently held by the Defense Ministry.

This would include provisions, including in land management and expropriation, directly affecting Palestinians living in the West Bank.

The person responsible for the file now is a staff officer of the Archaeology Unit of the Civil Administration, a branch of the Defense Ministry’s Coordinator of Government Activities in the Territories (COGAT), which is responsible for civilian affairs in the territory.

“The bill would essentially create a new situation in Judea and Samaria in which Israeli governmental authority will be exercised directly, not subordinate to the military commander in the area, but to the Heritage Minister,” says Attorney Ayala Roash from the legal office at the Defense Ministry.

“In essence, this proposal removes the authority of the military commander, taking away its powers,” she adds. “This is essentially a contradiction of the paradigm according to which Israel manages the territories of the region. I must also say that we have not yet encountered such a model yet.”

Roash also notes that the scope of the proposal includes Areas A and B, where Israel has transferred civilian responsibility (and, in the case of Area A, also security responsibility) to the Palestinian Authority, creating further legal difficulties.

Halevi rejects the notion that Israeli legislators and government are not allowed to exercise their power directly in the West Bank, and expresses hope that the bill could become law as early as next week.