Palestinians Warn of Coalition Deal Between Netanyahu, Ben-Gvir

WEST BANK (KI) – The Palestinian Authority (PA) has warned of the consequences of the deal between Likud leader Benjamin Netanyahu and head of the far-right Otzma Yehudit party, Itamar Ben-Gvir.
In a statement issued by its Foreign Ministry, the PA warned of: “Possible disastrous consequences of the deal on the conflict.”
The PA noted: “The attacks of the armed settler militias started to take a social and organized nature in light of feeling protected and supported by officials following the last Israeli election. This will incentivize them to carry out more crimes against the Palestinians, their land, property and holy sites.”
The statement added: “The new authority given to Ben-Gvir gives him and his followers the power over the occupied Palestinian land, settlement and illegal outposts.”
In the statement, the PA called for the international community to bear responsibility for the developments in the regime’s arena and put pressure on the Zionist regime to ensure it will not carry out an “extremist agenda”.
On Friday, Netanyahu reached a deal with Ben-Gvir through which the latter is to serve in the newly created position of so-called National Security — an expanded public security minister role that includes oversight of the regime’s police and troops in the occupied West Bank.
In addition to the ministry, The Times of Israel reported that Ben-Gvir’s party will run an expanded version of the ministry for the development of the Negev and the Galilee, the newly created heritage ministry, the Knesset’s public security committee, and the post of deputy economy minister.
Meanwhile, outgoing war minister Benny Gantz warned on Friday of chaos in the occupied territories over making Ben-Gvir the de-facto prime minister.
“Establishing a private army for Ben-Gvir in [the occupied West Bank] is dangerous… and will create real security failures,” Gantz argued.
Gantz also warned that Netanyahu’s reported decision to transfer control of the civil administration, the war ministry’s body that governs the occupied West Bank, to the finance ministry, under Religious Zionism chairperson Bezalel Smotrich, will lead to criticism from the international community that the Zionist regime is carrying out “de-facto annexation”.
“The dismantlement of the cabinet’s powers into fragments of ministries based on political needs and the dismantlement of operational frameworks in the IDF will damage the functionality of the IDF (Zionist army) and the police,” it is reported that Gantz expressed on Friday.
“Netanyahu’s conduct is an admission that the real prime minister is going to be Ben-Gvir,” he added.