Smotrich cancels Hebron Protocol, ending Palestinian control in occupied city
Israeli Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich announced on Monday that the “Hebron Agreements were cancelled”, a move that strips the Palestinian Hebron Municipality of its authority over construction projects in the occupied West Bank city.
“For many years, one of the most absurd clauses of the Oslo Accords remained in place, when authorities related to the Jewish settlement in Hebron were dependent on Hebron's terror municipality,” Smotrich said during an inauguration ceremony for a new illegal settlement in the southern Mount Hebron area.
The decision was finalised Monday night by Israel’s Higher Planning Council, which oversees construction in parts of the occupied West Bank, following a security cabinet decision approved in principle on 8 February with Smotrich’s efforts.
Cancelling the Hebron Protocol effectively ends the planning and construction authority held by the Palestinian Hebron Municipality as part of the Oslo Accords, leaving it to be seized by the Israeli state.
Yousef al-Jabari, the mayor of Hebron, told Middle East Eye that Israel is trying to reassert its control over the city of Hebron, undermining an agreement on its administration despite the fact that it was signed by an Israeli prime minister and overseen by an American administration.
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"This move announced by Smotrich sends a message to the Palestinians and the world that he doesn’t respect international agreements, the American administration, or even his own prime minister". Jabari said.
"This is a new settlement plan and an attempt to seize Hebron municipality properties and
everything belonging to it in the Old City." He added.
"Smotrich is trying to use this measure for electioneering because he is approaching the Israeli elections, and he is trying to establish a municipal council for settlers within the city of Hebron."
Amid a continuous Israeli military presence and mounting settler violence across the occupied West Bank, Hebron has been facing frequent military incursions and operations. These include severe restrictions on movement and raids on homes in neighbourhoods across the city.
Signed in 1997 by Benjamin Netanyahu and Yasser Arafat as part of the Oslo Accords, the Hebron Protocol divided the city into two zones.
H1, covering roughly 80 percent of the city, is under Palestinian Authority control. H2, which includes the Old City, the Ibrahimi Mosque, and several southern neighbourhoods, remains under full Israeli military control.
Smotrich's decision means that planning and construction at holy sites, including the Ibrahimi Mosque, are no longer within the jurisdiction of the Palestinian Hebron Municipality.
The mosque remains a major focal point for illegal settlers, who took control of half the site following the original protocol.
Earlier this year, the Israeli army stripped Palestinians of municipal control over the holy site, barring the director of the mosque, Mu’taz Abu Sneineh, and head custodian Hammam Abu Murkhiya from entering for 15 days.
The move is widely seen as an attempt to transfer its control from the Hebron Municipality to the religious council of the nearby Kiryat Arba settlement.
Heightened restrictions
For more than 25 years, Israel has sealed off roughly one square kilometre around the Ibrahimi Mosque using over 120 checkpoints and gates. The area, home to around 7,000 Palestinians, also contains several settlement outposts.
Israeli forces have also intensified raids on neighbourhoods across occupied Hebron in recent months, imposing curfews for several consecutive days, blocking access to livelihoods, and deploying military vehicles and bulldozers to seal neighbourhood entrances.
Israeli officials frequently enter the occupied city under the protection of the Israeli army during those curfews. Last week, far-right National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir was seen marching through the streets of Hebron in a heavily secured convoy of Israeli forces.
Following these recent raids, local residents state that the ultimate goal is to expand settlement outposts, shorten the distances between them, and to permanently consolidate the settler presence across the occupied West Bank.
Middle East Eye has revealed that prosecutors at the International Criminal Court in The Hague in April filed an arrest warrant application for Smotrich over alleged forced displacement as a crime against humanity and war crime, the transfer of Israel’s own population into occupied territory as a war crime, and persecution and apartheid as crimes against humanity.
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