Israeli National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir on Thursday claimed the entire occupied West Bank \u201cbelongs to Israel\u201d regardless of the administrative divisions established under the Oslo Accords, threatening to dismantle the Palestinian Authority if he assumes the defense portfolio. Speaking to Israel\u2019s Channel 14, Ben-Gvir dismissed the 1995 Oslo II Accord framework that divided the territory into Areas A, B and C. \u201cThere is no difference between Areas A, B and C. The entire land is ours. This is our country,\u201d he said, rejecting the arrangement that places Area A under full Palestinian control, Area B under joint control, and Area C \u2014 roughly 60% of the territory \u2014 under Israeli military administration.<\/p>\n
Displacement threats<\/p>\n
The far-right minister also outlined plans to encourage Palestinian emigration from both the West Bank and Gaza Strip, claiming without evidence that 60% of Palestinians wish to leave. \u201cI will dedicate time to this, and I will manage the process continuously,\u201d he told the broadcaster, adding that he would hold weekly discussions with relevant officials to advance the policy. Ben-Gvir further advocated loosening military rules of engagement to reduce manpower needs, stating: \u201cIt is very simple: The more you allow soldiers to shoot and use force, the less manpower you need.\u201d He argued that current police protocols allow greater leeway than army regulations.<\/p>\n
Election context<\/p>\n
The remarks come amid campaigning for Israel\u2019s Oct. 27 Knesset election, as polls indicate sliding support for Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu\u2019s coalition. Ben-Gvir has recently intensified anti-Palestinian rhetoric while making repeated visits to Al-Aqsa Mosque in occupied East Jerusalem, though he accused Netanyahu of not pursuing displacement policies aggressively enough. Netanyahu has publicly floated Palestinian displacement on several occasions, according to previous reporting.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Israeli National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir on Thursday claimed the entire occupied West Bank \u201cbelongs to Israel\u201d regardless…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":635017,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[85,46,286768,43],"class_list":["post-635016","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-israel","tag-il","tag-israel","tag-itamar-ben-gvir-west-bank","tag-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/635016","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=635016"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/635016\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/635017"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=635016"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=635016"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=635016"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}