Israel's Foreign Ministry issued an unusual public rebuttal on Tuesday to Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich, saying the Hebron Agreement has not been canceled. In an English-language post on X, the ministry said, “Contrary to the statement by the Finance Minister, the Hebron Agreement was not canceled.” It added that the only change was a specific cabinet decision made several months ago on planning and building powers for the Jewish community in Hebron and Jewish heritage sites in the city.
The ministry said that decision came after years of complete lack of cooperation from the Hebron municipality on those issues, and that no further changes were made. Smotrich, who also serves as a minister in the Defense Ministry, had announced the move earlier on Tuesday during the inauguration ceremony for the new settlement of Doran in the Mount Hebron area.
According to Smotrich, the practical steps were completed overnight to cancel the civilian planning and building clauses established in the 1997 Hebron Agreement. He said the Higher Planning Council in Judea and Samaria approved the measures that strip the Palestinian Hebron municipality of its powers in those areas.
Under the Hebron Agreement, part of the Oslo Accords, the city was divided into Palestinian-controlled H1 and Israeli security-controlled H2. Even in H2, the Palestinian municipality retained some civilian authority, including planning, construction, and infrastructure development approvals. At the ceremony, Smotrich said, “For many long years, one of the most absurd clauses of Oslo remained in place, with powers concerning the Jewish community in Hebron and the holy sites dependent on the Hebron municipality.”
