Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office announces that he has inked an agreement with Defense Minister Yoav Gallant and Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich, who is also a minister in the Defense Ministry, regarding the division of powers between the latter two.
The statement from Netanyahu’s office doesn’t provide details on the arrangement. As part of their coalition deal, Netanyahu’s Likud party agreed to transfer control over the Civil Administration and Coordinator for Government Activities in the Territories to Smotrich’s far-right Religious Zionism party.
According to a statement from Smotrich’s office, the deal will give him authority over most of the Civil Administration, such as the approval of settlement construction and enforcement against illegal construction in the West Bank, though the military will retain the power to demolish wildcat outposts “in case of security and irregular events.” The agreement will also allow Smotrich to appoint a deputy head of the Civil Administration, who will be a civilian official and wield the powers in his stead, but he will not be able to choose its leader or the commander of COGAT.
“We have a long way to go, but this is a day of celebration for residents of Judea and Samaria and the State of Israel,” Smotrich says, using the biblical names for the West Bank.
It's not (only) about you.
Supporting The Times of Israel isn’t a transaction for an online service, like subscribing to Netflix. The ToI Community is for people like you who care about a common good: ensuring that balanced, responsible coverage of Israel continues to be available to millions across the world, for free.
Sure, we'll remove all ads from your page and you'll unlock access to some excellent Community-only content. But your support gives you something more profound than that: the pride of joining something that really matters.
Join the Times of Israel Community
Join our Community
Already a member? Sign in to stop seeing this
You're a dedicated reader
We’re really pleased that you’ve read X Times of Israel articles in the past month.
That’s why we started the Times of Israel - to provide discerning readers like you with must-read coverage of Israel and the Jewish world.
So now we have a request. Unlike other news outlets, we haven’t put up a paywall. But as the journalism we do is costly, we invite readers for whom The Times of Israel has become important to help support our work by joining The Times of Israel Community.
For as little as $6 a month you can help support our quality journalism while enjoying The Times of Israel AD-FREE, as well as accessing exclusive content available only to Times of Israel Community members.
Thank you,
David Horovitz, Founding Editor of The Times of Israel
Join Our Community
Join Our Community
Already a member? Sign in to stop seeing this