The American "Mondoweiss" website, which specializes in America's relations with Palestine and Israel, says that audio leaks from Israeli Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich revealed a "radical" plan to impose permanent Israeli control over the West Bank, without putting the Tel Aviv government in charge of annexation.

A report on the website written by Qassam Maadi explained that this plan includes transferring administrative authorities in the West Bank from the Israeli army to the civilian authorities of the Israeli government, and allocating huge budgets to expand the settlements and strengthen its “security” procedures with the aim of “avoiding the West Bank becoming part of a Palestinian state.”

The writer said that Smotrich's plan includes annexing more than 60% of the West Bank to Israel, and Palestinian experts say that this is "already happening."

Maadi added that in the leak, Smotrich made statements recorded by the Israeli non-governmental organization "Peace Now" and published by CNN and the New York Times during a speech he delivered to settler leaders earlier this month.

Smotrich said in the recording that he developed the plan over the past year and a half and presented it to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who "fully supported the idea."

Army Civil Administration

Smotrich confirmed that he supervised the establishment of a complete administrative body directly linked to the government, and its members are already involved in the civilian administration of the Israeli army.

The report indicated that Smotrich - who was appointed responsible for the Civil Administration in 2022 - and since October 7, his hard-line policies pushing for settlement expansion have reached new heights, as the recently leaked annexation plan raised concerns about his intentions.

According to Smotrich, the administrative changes that he wishes to implement represent a “radical change” equivalent to “changing the composition of the regime,” stressing that large budgets have been allocated to infrastructure projects for settlement expansion and “security measures” for the settlements, and that the goal of this plan is “for the West Bank not to become West Bank is part of the Palestinian state.

Already happining

The report said that Smotrich's leak comes at a time when the West Bank has witnessed a significant increase in violent settler attacks against Palestinian villages since October 7.

In the first days of the current Israeli attack on Gaza, Israeli settlers launched a series of attacks on Palestinian rural communities, and about 20 population centers were completely expelled in the Jordan Valley and its adjacent eastern slopes (the Al-Mirajat area) and in Masafer Yatta in the South Hebron Hills.

Smotrich's ally and Israeli National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir personally supervised the distribution of firearms to settlers who continue to attack Palestinian villages and roads in the West Bank.

According to Khalil Al-Tafakji, a Palestinian expert on Israeli settlement affairs and former director of the mapping unit at Orient House in Jerusalem, Smotrich’s plan “is a description of what is actually happening on the ground,” adding that this is what they have been saying and warning about for years.

He said that the settlers are currently ethnically cleansing Area C of Palestinians, which covers 61% of the area of the West Bank and includes the borders of the region, the Jordan Valley, and the distance between Palestinian towns and cities.

Al-Tufakji explained that the plan is in fact a major change in the way the West Bank is dealt with within the Israeli regime, because it will be under the civilian control of the Israeli government, which will facilitate the construction and expansion of settlements in a way that makes Area C a direct extension of Israel.

Source: American press+ Aljazeera