In a move widely condemned as a step towards de facto annexation of the Palestinian lands, Israel’s Knesset is about to vote on a bill to establish a ‘Judea, Samaria and Gaza Heritage Authority’ under the Heritage Ministry.
The bill, if approved by Israeli lawmakers, will transfer authority over antiquities in the occupied West Bank and potentially Gaza from military administration to a civilian Israeli body.
The name of the proposed authority is based on so-called biblical terms for the occupied West Bank, the area stretching across the eastern border of Israel that Tel Aviv occupied along with East Jerusalem and Gaza in the 1967 war.
It is home to about three million Palestinians, who routinely face a violent displacement campaign by Israel following the latest legal changes meant to drive Palestinians out of their ancestral lands.
Israeli media says lawmakers can vote the proposal into law as early as Monday (May 25).
The legislative move will grant the new body powers to operate even in Areas A and B, which fall under nominal Palestinian Authority control in the occupied West Bank.
The proposed law violates the International Court of Justice (ICJ) ruling of July 19, 2024, that says Israel must end its occupation of Palestinian territories, including the West Bank, dismantle its illegal settlements, provide full reparations to Palestinian victims and facilitate the return of displaced people.
This vote on the proposed authority comes alongside the government’s approval of an $86 million plan for heritage sites in the occupied West Bank – something Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has framed as an attempt to preserve the “heritage, identity and historical truth of our people”.
Nasir Qadri, an international law practitioner and critical legal scholar at Koc University in Istanbul, tells TRT World that the legislative move is far more than a simple administrative reform.
“The transfer of authority over antiquities… is a form of jurisdictional appropriation,” he says.
Under Article 43 of the 1907 Hague Regulations, an occupying power must respect the laws in force in occupied territory. In the occupied West Bank, the subject of antiquities should be dealt with under the 1966 Jordanian Antiquities Law.
By replacing that framework with Israeli civilian legislation, Israel expands its control over occupied territory, Qadri says.
“This constitutes annexation under international law, regardless of whether it is framed as heritage preservation,” he notes.
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The bill’s sponsors have made no effort to hide their ill intentions.
MK Zvi Sukkot, chairman of the Knesset’s Education, Culture, and Sports Committee, has said that Jewish heritage is thousands of years old and that it is his duty to protect it.
“There is no such thing as Palestinian heritage,” he was reported as saying.
