Israeli Minister Strips Palestinians of Control over Hebron Holy Site
Smotrich said the transfer gives Israel practical sovereignty over the shrine and nearby settler areas after the Palestinian municipality lost planning powers.
- On Tuesday, Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich announced the transfer of planning and construction powers for the Cave of the Patriarchs in Hebron to Israeli authorities, scrapping parts of a 1990s agreement.
- Under the 1997 Hebron Agreement, Palestinians controlled planning and construction in the city, an arrangement Palestinian officials say Israel has steadily eroded in recent years.
- Calling the move a step of "practical sovereignty," Smotrich claimed the municipality failed to cooperate, though Yonatan Mizrahi, co-director of Peace Now, described it as a power grab by Israel's Higher Planning Council.
- Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas denounced the seizure as an "infringement upon the political and legal status of Hebron" and a violation of international law; Mayor Yousef Al-Jabari called it a "racist decision."
- The site sits within an Israeli-controlled sector housing roughly 40,000 Palestinians and 200 settler families, serving as a flashpoint for violence amid broader Israeli settlement expansion efforts in the West Bank.
12 Articles
12 Articles
Israel seizes power over shrine, mosque
JERUSALEM — Israel seized planning and construction powers at a Jewish and Muslim shrine in the occupied West Bank from Palestinian authorities, scrapping parts of an agreement in place since the 1990s, Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich said Tuesday.
Israel strips Palestinians of control over holy site in Hebron
HEBRON: Israel’s Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich said on Tuesday he had stripped Palestinians of authority over the site of the Cave of Patriarchs, known to Muslims as the Ibrahimi Mosque, in the occupied West Bank. The move to transfer management of the site to an Israeli committee controlled by the far-right minister, drew swift condemnation from the Palestinian Authority. In a statement posted on his Telegram channel, Smotrich said the site…
A protocol signed in 1997 left the management of most of the Cave of the Patriarchs in the hands of the Palestinians. The Israeli Minister of Finance and figure of the far right, Bezalel
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