Smotrich Says Hebron Planning Powers Were Pulled Back From Palestinian Municipality

At a ceremony marking the new settlement of Doran in the Hebron Hills, Finance Minister and Minister in the Defense Ministry Bezalel Smotrich said on Monday that Israel had completed a move to cancel the Hebron agreements. He said the step removed planning and building powers in the Jewish enclave in Hebron, including over holy sites such as the Cave of the Patriarchs, from Hebron’s municipality.

According to Smotrich, the transfer was finalized Sunday night after a cabinet decision he had initiated was approved several months ago, and after the Higher Planning Council adopted the required resolutions to carry it out. He said the authority over planning and construction in these areas now returns to the full responsibility of the State of Israel, rather than the Hebron municipality.

Smotrich described the move as “much more than a planning step” and called it “a historic correction.” He said, “Yesterday we canceled the Hebron agreements,” adding that for years “one of the most absurd clauses of Oslo” had remained in place, leaving powers affecting the Jewish community in Hebron and sacred sites dependent on what he called “the terror municipality of Hebron.”

He said the government is continuing “the settlement regularization revolution,” strengthening governance and deepening Israeli sovereignty in the West Bank. The article does not indicate any further steps beyond the implementation he announced.