With the formation of the government passed Amendment 11 to Basic Law: The Government, allowing more than one minister to serve in a government office, clearing the way for Bezalel Smotrich’s appointment as Additional Minister in the Ministry of Defense. Smotrich also holds the office of Minister of Finance. On February 23, 2023, Smotrich and then-Minister of Defense Yoav Gallant signed a Memorandum of Understanding on the division of powers and responsibilities between them, giving effect to the commitment made in the coalition agreements and formalizing Smotrich’s control over most aspects of daily civilian life in the West Bank.

This power-sharing agreement opens by stating that nothing contained in it alters the legal status of the West Bank or the law applicable there. However, the document and its annexes lay out a veritable revolution in the structure of governance in the West Bank, a pivotal step in its annexation. In practice, the agreement divides control over the occupied territory between the Minister of Defense, who remains responsible primarily for security and operational matters, and the Additional Minister, who is given jurisdiction over the Coordinator of Government Activities in the Territories, COGAT, and the Civil Administration in areas defined as civilian. These include powers relating to planning and construction, private and state land registration, infrastructure and civil services, nature reserves, and enforcement policy in construction and land.

To facilitate this, a new agency, the Settlement Administration, which settlers call the Regularization Administration, was established within the Ministry of Defense. Its mandate is to manage and direct COGAT and the Civil Administration, as well as advance the retroactive approval of outposts and settlements. Notably, the agreement classifies some areas pertaining to Palestinians’ lives as security matters, although corresponding areas are defined as civilian for settlers. For example, water rates for the Palestinian population were defined as a security matter that remained under the authority of the Minister of Defense.

The Civil Administration, which is part of the military government apparatus in the West Bank, manages civilian aspects of control over the territory on behalf of the military in keeping with the law applicable to military occupation. The transfer of responsibilities to Smotrich has put crucial aspects of control in the hands of a minister who openly promotes Israeli settlements and settler interests and shifted the center of gravity of governance in the occupied territory away from the Military Commander toward Israel’s political leadership. This shift defies the legal structure established by the laws of occupation, chiefly the Hague Regulations, under which the military commander holds the power and authority to administer the occupied territory on a temporary basis. Military rule remains only as a formal shell concealing the fact that the territory is now effectively administered by the occupying power’s civilian government. This is a central step in the annexation of the West Bank.

The agreement also created a new position, Deputy Head of the Civil Administration for Civilian Affairs, a civilian serving alongside the Head of the Civil Administration, a military officer. In terms of organizational hierarchy, the Civilian Deputy is subordinate to the Head of the Civil Administration. However, he receives professional guidance from the Head of the Settlement Administration. The Civilian Deputy oversees employees and units in areas under the authority of the Additional Minister in the Ministry of Defense, i.e., Smotrich. The power-sharing agreement limited the extent to which the Minister of Defense can intervene in decisions by directly instructing the Civil Administration, and transferred the legal advisory function, as it relates to areas under the Civilian Deputy’s purview, from the Military Advocate General’s Corps to a civilian office under the minister.

Under the agreement, the Additional Minister in the Ministry of Defense assumed responsibility for appointments, budgeting and personnel in the Civil Administration. He oversees tenders and the organizational framework of the units accountable to the Civilian Deputy, as well as appointments to civilian positions in the Civil Administration. These powers have given Smotrich the ability to shape the apparatus, set its priorities and mobilize personnel and funding to advance his policy. To preserve the appearance of continued military government and obscure the annexationist nature of this development, these powers were formally embedded within the military system. In other words, they formally remained with the military body known as the Civil Administration. In practice, however, the Civil Administration has become an executive arm for Israeli government officials, while the management of civilian affairs, staff work and decision-making in these areas were transferred from the military to the Settlement Administration and the Additional Minister. In this way, the Additional Minister in the Ministry of Defense receives the power to issue instructions directly to military bodies, bypassing the Minister of Defense and the military chain of command.

The power-sharing agreement and the appointment of an additional minister in the Ministry of Defense have profoundly restructured Israel’s control of the West Bank. They make it possible to circumvent the constraints that international humanitarian law places on the administration of occupied territory, chief among them Article 43 of the Hague Regulations. Transferring powers from the military government apparatus to civilian, political actors has shifted the center of gravity of the territory’s administration from the Head of the Civil Administration to bodies answerable to Smotrich. This is de facto annexation: not a formal declaration of sovereignty, but a process of gradually transferring the mechanisms of control in the West Bank to civilian hands, placing them directly under the government’s authority, and integrating settlements into Israel’s civilian systems.

Smotrich himself clearly articulated the purpose of the change. At a Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee session in July 2023, he explained that the military was meant to handle security and that “a military system does not really know how to manage a civilian system.” Smotrich presented the transfer of powers as a means of improving settlers’ roads, education services, clinics, passage through checkpoints between the West Bank and Israel, and overall quality of life. He also made clear that planning and enforcement policy in the West Bank was intended to serve “Israel’s national, political and security interests in the area.”