Israeli Defence Minister Israel Katz has announced that law enforcement powers in the West Bank will be transferred from the military to the Israel Police.
A statement from Katz’s office said that “in light of the extremist riots in the village of Qusra”, it was exploring options to move enforcement powers against Israelis committing crimes in the West Bank from the IDF to the police, which would “prepare and establish a force suitable for dealing with and handling civil matters and be granted all the necessary powers and budgets”.
Settlers have been blockading the Palestinian village just south of Nablus since Sunday and repelled the Border Police’s attempt to break up their illegal outpost on Wednesday in a move decried by the US ambassador to Israel, Mike Huckabee, as “terrorism”.
The IDF has since dispatched an infantry battalion to break the blockade and clear out the extremists.
Katz ordered the change following a meeting on Thursday with IDF Chief of Staff Lieutenant General Eyal Zamir and other senior military officials.
The defence minister reportedly implied that the IDF’s job is to fight against terrorism and protect Israel’s borders rather than “chase youth in the hilltops”.
Katz stated that fighting settler violence in the West Bank “is not the role” of the IDF “nor is it capable of handling the enforcement of civil issues” there, given the “expected welcome increase in the number of settlers”, following the government’s approval of new settlements.
At the moment, the IDF can only temporarily detain Israeli citizens suspected of criminal activity in the West Bank, before turning them over to the Israel Police.
Administrative restraining orders can also be issued preventing violent settlers from entering specified areas.
Critics of the move have also raised concerns that the police force reports to the national security minister, Itamar Ben-Gvir, who himself lives in a settlement and has previously said that he supports Israeli annexation of the West Bank.
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