Dec. 21 (EUROPA PRESS) –
The far-right leader Itamar Ben Gvir has accepted this Wednesday that there are changes in Israeli legislation to increase transparency before his imminent appointment as Minister of National Security in the new Government of Israel led by the leader of the Likud, the designated prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu .
The changes, promoted in a bill by the Israeli opposition, include the obligation to openly publish their political measures, as well as an annual report before the Constitution, Law and Justice Committee of Parliament, popularly known as the Knesset.
The future Minister of National Security, of the far-right Otzma Yehudi, has been in favor of these initiatives and has assured that the bill “will shed more light” on the government activities of the new Netanyahu government, as reported by the newspaper ‘The Times of Israel’.
On the other hand, the Likud deputy Amichai Chikli has assured this Wednesday that he has no problem with calling “de facto annexation” the powers over the occupied West Bank ceded to the leader of the far-right Religious Zionism party, Bezalel Smotrich, also a partner of the coalition of the Netanyahu government.
“The Civil Administration is a very problematic body and it is biased against the Jewish settlements in Judea and Samaria (the West Bank),” Chikli explained in an interview with the radio operated by the Israel Defense Forces and collected by the newspaper ‘ The Times of Israel’.
In this sense, given the controversy that the transfer of powers could mean a “de facto annexation” of the occupied West Bank, the Likud deputy has assured that he has “no problem” with that name.
Smotrich will have, as future Defense Minister, important powers over the occupied West Bank that until now depended on the Israeli Army. Likewise, he will be able to appoint the Coordinator of Government Activities in the Territories (CAGT) and the director of the Civil Administration, responsible for Israeli civil policy in the West Bank.
The Civil Administration depends on the CAGT and has the last word on planning and construction in Area C of the West Bank, 60 percent of this territory and where all the 491,000 Jewish settlers installed in Palestinian territory live. It also persecutes both Palestinian and Jewish illegal constructions.
The entry into the government of the far-right Otzma Yehudi, the ultra-orthodox Shas and the ultra-nationalist Religious Zionism have sparked international concern about the future Israeli policies of Netanyahu’s coalition in the occupied West Bank.
