Smotrich handed sweeping civilian control over the West Bank

In February 2023, beyond the finance ministry, Bezalel Smotrich was made a minister inside the Defense Ministry with authority over much of COGAT and the Civil Administration — the bodies governing civilian affairs in Area C of the occupied West Bank — and a new Settlements Administration was created under him. Critics described it as transferring settlement planning and Palestinian civil affairs to a settler ideologue, a de facto step toward annexation and a bifurcated legal order.

Referenced entities

Parties

Religious Zionism Party

Politicians

Bezalel Smotrich minister

Sources

Permalink: https://tarekgara.com/tayyar/pulse/66fe283d-7fb6-48e6-8357-70c6d1514638

How to cite

Each record carries a retrieval date because the dataset is live — individual entries update as verification deepens. Use the per-record citation when referencing this specific profile; use the dataset citation below when referencing the project as a whole.

In-text: (Gara, 2026)

Per-record citation

APA 7Reference list · academic default

Gara, T. (2026). Smotrich handed sweeping civilian control over the West Bank [Event record]. Tayyar: A MENA political-position dataset. Retrieved July 27, 2026, from https://tarekgara.com/tayyar/pulse/66fe283d-7fb6-48e6-8357-70c6d1514638

Chicago author-dateCommon in political-science journals

Gara, Tarek. 2026. "Smotrich handed sweeping civilian control over the West Bank." Event record, Tayyar: A MENA political-position dataset. Accessed July 27, 2026. https://tarekgara.com/tayyar/pulse/66fe283d-7fb6-48e6-8357-70c6d1514638.

BibTeXFor LaTeX / Zotero / reference managers

@misc{tayyar-event-66fe283d-7fb6-48e6-8357-70c6d1514638,
  title     = {{Smotrich handed sweeping civilian control over the West Bank}},
  author    = {Gara, Tarek},
  year      = {2026},
  publisher = {Tayyar: A MENA political-position dataset},
  type      = {Event record},
  url       = {https://tarekgara.com/tayyar/pulse/66fe283d-7fb6-48e6-8357-70c6d1514638},
  urldate   = {2026-07-27},
  note      = {Event date: 2023-02-01. First-pass entry; second-pass external review planned before publication.}
}

Dataset / working-paper citation

If you're citing Tayyar as a project rather than this individual record.

APA 7Preprint

Gara, T. (2026). Tayyar: A MENA political-position dataset [Preprint]. Retrieved July 27, 2026, from https://tarekgara.com/tayyar/paper

BibTeXPreprint

@unpublished{tayyar-preprint,
  title  = {{Tayyar: A MENA political-position dataset}},
  author = {Gara, Tarek},
  year   = {2026},
  type   = {Preprint},
  url    = {https://tarekgara.com/tayyar/paper},
  urldate = {2026-07-27},
  note   = {Living document, regenerated from the live dataset on page load.}
}

Event date: 2023-02-01. First-pass entry; second-pass external review planned before publication.