Israel advanced two major seizures of religiously significant Palestinian territory this week, the most recent steps in a dramatic push to advance settlements ahead of elections that are due at the latest in October.
Israeli Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich announced on Tuesday that he annulled the Hebron Accords, a 1997 agreement that gives the Palestinian Hebron municipality authority to construct and plan in the H2 area of the city, despite it being under Israeli military control. The Ibrahimi Mosque, known to Jews as the Cave of the Patriarchs, is in H2, as well as deeply ideological Israeli settlements, home to several hundred Jewish Israelis.
On Wednesday, the Orthodox Patriarchate of Jerusalem, which heads the largest church in the Holy Land, said Israel illegally seized private church property “in the heart of Jerusalem” on Monday. The Patriarchate added that the land “lies adjacent to an ancient monastery, and contains historical, archaeological, and religious features”.
The two cases come during a year in which Israel’s ultranationalist government has advanced illegal settlements at a blistering pace, by allowing construction and land grabs, and changing regulations. Many of its senior ministers are themselves settlers, including in Hebron, and say annexation of Palestinian land is a key priority, despite international opposition.
Speaking at the site of a new settlement in the south of the occupied West Bank, Mr Smotrich said the Hebron Accords were “one of the most absurd clauses of the Oslo Accords,” the agreement between Israel and the Palestine Liberation Organisation in the 1990s to end the conflict between both sides.
“Authority over the Jewish settlement in Hebron and the holy sites was dependent on the terrorist municipality of Hebron. Yesterday we put an end to that,” he said.
Mr Smotrich has a second ministerial role in the Defence Ministry, which gives him significant influence in Israel’s settlement project.
The announcement was then thrown into confusion when Israel’s Foreign Ministry denied the accords had been cancelled in a post on X.
“Contrary to the Finance Minister’s statement, the Hebron Agreement has not been cancelled,” the ministry’s official account posted on Tuesday afternoon, adding that Israel’s security cabinet made a decision “several months ago” that relates specifically to planning and construction “with regard to the Jewish community in Hebron and the Jewish heritage sites”.
It said the decision was made after “years of a complete lack of co-operation on these matters by the Hebron Municipality”.
The day after Mr Smotrich’s announcement, Israel’s Civil Administration, a department in the Defence Ministry that enacts Israeli civil policy in the occupied West Bank, announced the construction of a large Jewish religious school in Hebron.
Mr Smotrich described the move, which included approving illegal construction elsewhere in the West Bank, as “a national move that solidifies our hold on the territory, strengthens Israel’s security, and establishes clear facts that prevent the establishment of an Arab terrorist state in the heart of the country”.
Destruction of the peace process
Israeli anti-settlement watchdog Peace Now described the recent developments in Hebron, despite the Foreign Ministry’s denial, as “another step in Israel’s formal erosion of commitments”.
“After promising victory and failing on every front, Smotrich the arsonist is trying to set the West Bank ablaze,” the organisation said.
“The measure is based on an apartheid principle, deepening the de facto application of Israeli sovereignty in occupied territory, weakening the Palestinian Authority, and further undermining the prospects for a political agreement based on two states."
Hebron-based Palestinian activist Issa Amro said he was “very concerned” about Mr Smotrich’s decision, which meant that Palestinians in the city “will face more violence… apartheid, more segregation, more separation, more theft, more ethnic cleansing”.
“This government is trying to do more destruction of the peace process,” he added, calling on the international community to intervene.
In Jerusalem, activist Daniel Seidemann described the seizure of land as a “blatantly illegal attempt to seize Church properties for the benefit of the settlements in Silwan”.
“When the biblically driven, messianic settlers of East Jerusalem covet property that happens to belong to a Church, nothing will stop the government from using all their powers to seize that property,” he added.
“The vulnerable Christian communities struggling to maintain their communal presence and secure their properties are expendable. Acceptable collateral damage.”
The Patriarchate said that the seizure involved the forcible removal of a representative of the organisation. “His equipment was confiscated, trees were uprooted, and the property was enclosed with fencing and gates,” it added.
“The events in Silwan fall within a wider pattern of escalating assaults aimed at weakening the indigenous Christian presence in the Holy Land,” it continued.
Deputy Mayor of Jerusalem Arieh King said that “rehabilitation works” would soon begin in the area, in order to incorporate it into the City of David National Park, an Israeli settlement archaeological project within Silwan.
