Israel Plans to Hand Law Enforcement in the West Bank to the Police: Another Step Towards Annexation

The ICJ’s 2024 Advisory Opinion already found that Israel’s extension of its domestic law to settlers and settlements is unlawful. Transferring enforcement of that law from military to police forces deepens the assimilation of the West Bank into Israel’s domestic order, further entrenching annexation.

Separately, the law of occupation – a sub-set of international humanitarian law (IHL) – requires respect for the law and institutions of the occupied territory. Occupation is a temporary regime of military administration, not a vehicle for sovereignty. Accordingly, it does not permit the occupying power to extend its own domestic law or civilian institutions into occupied territory.

Israeli settlements are also unequivocally unlawful under IHL, as they breach the prohibition on an occupying power transferring its own population into occupied territory. Extending Israeli police jurisdiction further entrenches the settlements, despite the ICJ’s finding that Israel must cease all settlement activity and evacuate all settlers from the occupied Palestinian territory (oPt).

Israel must act against settler violence. But unlawfully extending Israeli civilian legal architecture into the oPt is not the way to do it. Even while its unlawful presence continues, Israel remains bound by IHL and IHRL, including to take all necessary measures to protect Palestinians against settler violence.