The Settlement Administration, referred to by settlers as the Regularization Administration, and formally titled Settlement Administration (Regulation of Civilian Services in Judea and Samaria [the West Bank]), is a new government agency established by Israel’s 37th government. Its creation was provided for in the coalition agreement between the Likud and Religious Zionism parties and given effect in a February 2023 document entitled Memorandum of Understanding and Division of Powers and Responsibilities between the Minister of Defense and the Additional Minister in the Ministry of Defense. The Settlement Administration’s mandate is to manage all aspects of civilian life in the occupied territory, and it is directly subordinate to the Additional Minister in the Ministry of Defense, another position created under the coalition agreements and filled by Bezalel Smotrich. The Settlement Administration’s work extends beyond providing civil services to settlers. It coordinates and promotes policy on planning and construction, land administration, retroactive approval of outposts, enforcement, roads and infrastructure, archaeology and nature reserves in the West Bank.

The Settlement Administration’s establishment marks a fundamental restructuring of Israel’s control in the occupied territory. The fields of responsibility now under its purview were previously managed by the Israeli military, as mandated by international law in a state of military occupation, via a dedicated military body, the Civil Administration. The Settlement Administration has effectively replaced it, assuming powers previously held by the Military Commander that give it control over most aspects of life in Israeli settlements in the occupied territory, as well as areas that directly affect Palestinians, foremost among them planning, land administration and enforcement in Area C. Smotrich himself articulated what this development means at an internal conference of the Religious Zionism Party: “We created a separate civilian system. There is a ministry within the Ministry of Defense […] All the authorities of the Head of the Civil Administration were delegated to [the civilian administration].”

In February 2023, Yehuda Eliyahu was appointed head of the Settlement Administration. Eliyahu, a resident of the retroactively approved outpost of Haresha, had helped found Regavim [a settler organization focused on dispossessing Palestinians of land] along with Smotrich and is considered his right-hand man. Another close associate and settlement movement figure, Yoni Danino, who previously served as an aide to the head of the settlement regional council of  Mateh Binyamin, has also worked in the Administration.

The Settlement Administration derives its powers from the authority given to the Additional Minister in the Ministry of Defense over civilian affairs in the West Bank under the Memorandum of Understanding. These powers enable it to play a crucial role in the establishment and expansion of settlements and in consolidating Israeli control in the West Bank. In this capacity, the Administration formulates policy and provides professional guidance to civilian bodies in the fields transferred to the minister’s responsibility. It promotes settlement construction plans, advances the retroactive approval of outposts and their conversion into officially recognized settlements; pushes state land declarations and registration. It is involved in expropriation proceedings and land transactions; influences enforcement policy against construction by Israelis and Palestinians, and advances road, water, electricity and other infrastructure projects serving the settlements. It also oversees fields such as archaeology and nature reserves, which likewise affect control and potential use of land.

According to the Memorandum of Understanding, the Administration’s roles include leading the so-called Equal Citizenship reform, ostensibly intended to align state services and arrangements pertaining to settlers with those provided to citizens within Israel; advancing the retroactive approval of unauthorized outposts in the West Bank; and aligning military legislation with Israeli law, or, in other words, transplanting Israeli law into the West Bank through military orders, thereby obviating the need to apply Israeli law to settlements officially.

Following on this, in 2024, a military order extended Israeli urban renewal laws to settlements, though Israeli law does not apply to them. According to a media report, the Administration itself described this as “de facto sovereignty on the ground.” That same year, the Settlement Administration, together with the Civil Administration, compiled a list of dozens of “sites undergoing regularization,” in other words, unauthorized outposts that were given a status that enables them to receive infrastructure connections and other services prior to official retroactive approval. At the same time, the Administration led efforts to retroactively approve and recognize dozens more settlements and outposts. It has also led extensive cartographic work culminating in large swaths of land in the West Bank being declared or confirmed as state land, expanding areas under Israeli control and serving settlement expansion.

The Administration itself has only a few dozen staff, but it relies on the Civil Administration’s executive machinery, which employs hundreds. The Work Protocol between the Settlement Administration and the Civil Administration establishes a structure in which the Deputy Head of the Civil Administration for Civilian Affairs, or Civilian Deputy, holds the relevant powers and directly oversees a slew of Civil Administration units and staff officers. This arrangement removes the need to transfer hundreds of employees from the Civil Administration to the Settlement Administration. The Settlement Administration designs and promotes policy, and the Civilian Deputy implements it together with the Civil Administration units and officials working under him.

In July 2026, the Civil Service Commission approved formalizing the Settlement Administration as a permanent body within the Ministry of Defense, bolstering its status and potentially keeping it in place after the current government’s demise. In addition, the Civilian Deputy’s term in office was extended from four to six years. These measures are intended to entrench the institutional structure created by Smotrich and make it difficult to dismantle it or return the powers to the military apparatus following a change of government.

The new structure further entrenches and institutionalizes the segregation and Jewish supremacy emblematic of the apartheid regime in the West Bank. Two populations living in the same territory are subject to different systems of government, with settlers increasingly integrated into Israeli civilian mechanisms and benefiting from services and arrangements as though they lived in Israel, while Palestinians remain under military rule, without representation in the system that governs their lives. Meanwhile, the apparatus established to transfer the management of settlements to civilian hands now controls decisions that directly affect Palestinians living in the West Bank: where they may build, whether their homes will be demolished and what land will be declared state land. And so, within this regime, a body expressly established to advance settlement interests exercises governing powers over the Palestinian population living under occupation and authority over its land, development and construction.

The transfer of powers over civilian matters out of the military system came with a change in legal advisory roles, as the Settlement Administration receives legal counsel from a civilian official in the Ministry of Defense. Prior to this change, legal counsel was provided by the military’s legal advisor’s office, which was responsible for assessing whether military powers were exercised in compliance with the laws of occupation and the military commander’s obligations toward the protected Palestinian population. As such, it served as a check on Israeli policies in the occupied territory. With legal counsel now provided by a civilian who is part of the government system, works under the minister and helps advance his policy, this oversight mechanism is weakened.

The Settlement Administration’s influence is evident in enforcement policy on the ground. A letter titled Lack of Enforcement against Illegal Construction in the Judea and Samaria Area, which summarizes an internal discussion and was published in May 2024, indicates that even enforcement plans approved by the Central Command require the Settlement Administration’s approval. According to the then GOC Central Command, Yehuda Fox, the Settlement Administration withheld approval for enforcement against illegal Israeli construction, even in cases in which the state had undertaken to do so in court proceedings. Meanwhile, enforcement plans targeting Palestinian construction were systematically approved in full. In other words, the military commander, who formally holds authority in the territory, must, in practice, receive approval from a civilian system serving a political agenda, in order to enforce the law.

The establishment of the Settlement Administration is a crucial step in the effort to change the nature of Israeli control in the West Bank. Rather than abolishing the military government or formally declaring annexation, which would inevitably draw international sanctions, Israel has kept the shell of military rule, through the Civil Administration, while transferring its powers, including over land policy and management, planning, settlements and infrastructure, to the Settlement Administration, an Israeli civilian body and part of Israel’s political system. This is a mechanism of annexation, not through a declaration but through a change in the way the West Bank is governed.