The former head of the Shin Bet security service warns against unilaterally annexing parts of the West Bank, saying it could destabilize the region.
“If the annexation happens, in the first stages I would only do the [settlement] blocs and would also transfer parts of Areas A and B to the Palestinians,” Yoram Cohen tells Army Radio, referring to two sections that make up 40 percent of the West Bank. Area B is under Israeli military control but Palestinian Authority civil control, and Area A is under full PA control.
“A unilateral move could undermine the security situation in the West Bank and peace with Jordan,” he says.
Under the coalition agreement between Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s Likud party and Defense Minister Benny Gantz’s Blue and White, the new government can move forward with applying Israeli sovereignty over settlements and the Jordan Valley as soon as July 1.
Cohen led the Shin Bet from 2011 to 2016.
Yoram Cohen, then-chief of the Shin Bet security agency, attends a Knesset Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee meeting on November 18, 2014. (Miriam Alster/Flash90)
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