Former Military Adviser Warns Against ‘Israeli’ Government Planned Moves in West Bank

By Staff, Agencies

A former ‘legal’ adviser to the Zionist military establishment warned against the regulation Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s new government intends to pass, saying it would harm the Zionist entity’s security and open it up to potential international scrutiny.

The adviser made the remarks in an interview with The Times of ‘Israel’ last week.

Under coalition agreements, control over the appointment of several army generals and authority over a War Ministry unit that oversees the ‘Israeli’ policy in the West Bank would be taken away from the war minister and handed to ‘Religious Zionism’ leader Bezalel Smotrich. Additionally, the far-right leader of the Otzma Yehudit party has been seeking to grant soldiers immunity from criminal prosecution for any action they might take while on operational duty.

Ahaz Ben-Ari, who served as the War Ministry’s ‘legal’ adviser between 2007 and 2017, told The Times of ‘Israel’ that the government’s plan to restructure military authority in the West Bank as part of a new office within the War Ministry given to Smotrich, the finance minister, would damage security.

Ben-Ari said the “most significant” civilian matter in the West Bank that the war minister has control over is the advancement of building plans. Under a decision made during Netanyahu’s first government in 1996 — known as Resolution 150 — all construction plans in the West Bank must be approved by the war minister.

Allowing Smotrich to appoint the two generals, as per the coalition agreements, violates another Basic ‘Law,’ The Military, whose Clause 2 [b] specifies: “The Minister in charge of the army on behalf of the Government is the Minister of ‘Defense.’”