The Hebrew newspaper Haaretz reported, on Wednesday, that Minister in the Israeli Defense Ministry, Bezalel Smotrich, excludes the legal advisor responsible for the West Bank within the Military Prosecutor’s Office, and refrains from inviting him and the commission’s officers to any sensitive discussions regarding settlement construction in the West Bank.
According to the newspaper, Smotrich takes the opinion of the Deputy Legal Advisor in the Ministry of the Israeli Defense Forces, who is a settler, researcher and former lawyer in settlement forums. He is responsible for the settlement issue in the Ministry, along with a group of legal experts working in the Ministry’s settlements administration.
In recent months, they have taken several controversial decisions that Smotrich took regarding expanding settlements, despite the opposition expressed by the legal advisor to the Military Prosecution.
Even before Smotrich's arrival, the Legal Advisory Board in the Military Prosecutor's Office was the legal authority that determined everything related to the compliance of the civil administration and Israeli army officers in the West Bank with the rules of international law and Supreme Court rulings.
Although it was agreed with the formation of the current government that legal advice would be provided by the same body, none of its members have been invited for months, as decisions are made only by Smotrich and his men, some of whom lack legal experience in the international laws of war.
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Haaretz: Smotrich excludes specialists from settlement construction discussions