Israel strips planning powers from Hebron municipality, threatens further erosion of Palestinian identity
A Palestinian child sits on a barrier blocking a street in the middle of the West Bank city of Hebron that Palestinians are prevented from using while illegal Israeli settlers have free movement under protection of the military
Aseel Mafarjeh reports in Mondoweiss on 28 June 2026 :
Earlier this month, just hours after Israeli Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich stripped the planning and construction authority from Hebron’s Palestinian municipality, the implications of the move became clear on the ground when Israeli authorities approved the construction of a new Jewish religious school near the Beit Romano settlement in the heart of the Old City. It is the first project in that part of the city authorized without the Palestinian municipality’s knowledge or consent.
For Palestinians, the decision was not simply an administrative matter involving a building permit or a new educational institution. It signaled a deeper shift in the nature of Israeli control over the city, and another step toward rewriting the political and legal reality that has governed Hebron since the 1997 Hebron Protocol.
The Hebron Protocol, signed on January 15, 1997 by then-Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and PLO Chairman Yasser Arafat under American mediation, divided the city into two zones: H1, covering roughly 80% of Hebron, transferred to Palestinian Authority control; and H2 – the Old City, the Ibrahimi Mosque, and five Jewish settlement clusters – was left under full Israeli military control, extending the occupation’s reach over some 20,000 Palestinians at that time under the pretext of securing a settler population numbering in the hundreds.
The resulting reality on the ground has been one of a highly militarized and divided city, where Palestinians living in H2 face intense restrictions on movement, a harsh network of Israeli checkpoints, and near-daily attacks from Israeli soldiers and settlers.
Despite the deeply entrenched apartheid in the city of Hebron, as per the Hebron Protocol, Hebron’s Palestinian municipality retained civil and planning jurisdiction over the whole city. In practice, that meant the municipality held the authority to issue or deny building permits, designate land use, approve infrastructure projects, connect homes to water and electricity networks, and maintain roads and public spaces. It was the mechanism through which Palestinians could, however partially, shape the physical development of their own city: determining where a school could be built, whether a neighborhood could expand, which streets received services.
Now, it is that framework that Smotrich’s decree has moved to dismantle.
Israel now the ultimate decision maker
The approved project of the religious school covers roughly 1,000 square meters and will house the Shavei Hevron Jewish religious school.