Israeli National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir said on Sunday that he would ask Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to propose “immediate operational steps” to collapse the Palestinian Authority.
“I will appeal to the prime minister to bring to the upcoming Cabinet meeting immediate operational steps to bring down the Palestinian Authority,” the minister wrote on X.
“This should be the response to terrorist Abu Mazen’s fantasies about a ‘Palestinian state'—the crushing of the terrorist authority he heads,” Ben-Gvir added, using P.A. chief Mahmoud Abbas’s kunya, or Arabic nickname.
Ben-Gvir was responding to a report by London-based Al-Araby Al-Jadeed claiming that Abbas was considering to renew his attempt to transform the P.A. into a “state” at the United Nations in September.
Abbas, feeling strengthened by the announcements by the U.K., France and Canada that they would be recognizing “Palestine,” was said to be planning to declare the unilateral move during the U.N. General Assembly’s annual general debate.
In May, Israel’s Cabinet voted to back a series of steps aimed at stopping the P.A.-led takeover of land in Judea and Samaria.
The Cabinet resolution declared that Ramallah’s attempts to create a land registry in Area C, which according to the Oslo Accords is under Israel’s exclusive control, will no longer hold any legal standing.
The defense establishment was also instructed to take other measures to prevent the continuation of the P.A. takeover, including by blocking its staff from accessing areas, obstructing European and other foreign support, and issuing a direct demand that Ramallah halt activities.
Jerusalem has also rejected Ramallah’s involvement in managing Gaza after the war against Hamas ends, with the Cabinet voting on Friday to promote “an alternative civil administration that is neither Hamas nor the Palestinian Authority” after the Islamist terrorist organization is defeated.
“Gaza will be demilitarized, and a peaceful civilian administration will be established, one that is not the Palestinian Authority, not Hamas, and not any other terrorist organization,” Netanyahu tweeted on Friday.
Israel’s Prime Minister’s Office did not immediately respond to a request for comment on whether Netanyahu considers the P.A. a terrorist group, and whether the premier would back Ben-Gvir’s proposal for Ramallah.
