The Cabinet today unanimously approved Defense Minister Ariel Sharon’s plan to reorganize the administration of the West Bank and Gaza Strip with emphasis on the separation of powers between the military and local civilian authorities. The plan is scheduled to go into effect in two months.
Cabinet Secretary Arye Naor explained later that the military government would still exercise overall control over newly appointed civilian officials. He said that under the Camp David agreements, the military government could not be replaced by a civilian government. However, Naor noted that some functions presently carried out by military officers would be transferred to civilians in the future.
“Not that the military government would be replaced by a civil government but that civilians will replace those army officers presently dealing with daily affairs,” Naor said. The Sharon plan envisages some local Arabs serving in the civilian authority.
One section of his plan encountered objections in the Cabinet and was amended. The objections centered on an article which authorized the Defense Minister to determine general policy in the occupied territories once the autonomy plan goes into effect. Several ministers argued that setting policy was the prerogative of the entire government, not solely the Defense Ministry. The article was changed to state that the Defense Minister would be responsible for determining the “procedures” in the territory, not policy.
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