Israeli demolition of West Bank outpost shakes Netanyahu’s cabinet
Defense Minister Yoav Galant and Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich are on a collision course over an illegal West Bank outpost.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu met Monday with Defense Minister Yoav Galant and Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich, in an attempt to resolve a clash between them over the razing of an illegal West Bank outpost. The order to dismantle the outpost was issued by Galant last week despite objections by Smotrich, who also serves as a junior minister in the Defense Ministry.
The clash between the two ministers was bound to happen. Still, coalition partners surely did not imagine such a confrontation should present itself so quickly, less than a month after the swearing-in of the new government.
On Jan. 20, Galant (from the Likud party) ordered security forces to tear down an illegal outpost named “Or HaChaim,” which was built overnight by a group of young settlers. Meanwhile, Smotrich (of the Religious Zionist party) instructed the Civil Administration, which had been placed under his purview, not to destroy the new outpost before there could be a proper debate about it, to be chaired by him. Only Galant’s order was carried out, and soldiers and police dismantled the illegal outpost while the settlers protested.
In response, Smotrich and the other ministers from his party boycotted last Sunday’s cabinet meeting while Netanyahu tiptoed between the raindrops.
