An order posted by the Israel Defense Forces on its website on 29 May transfers responsibility for dozens of bylaws at the Civil Administration (the Israeli body governing in the West Bank) from the military to officials led by Smotrich at the defence ministry.
Smotrich and his allies have long seen control of the Civil Administration, or significant parts of it, as a means of extending Israeli sovereignty in the West Bank. Their ultimate goal is direct control by central government and its ministries.
The transfer reduces the likelihood of legal checks on Jewish settlement expansion and development.
Israeli politicians have long sought to find ways to permanently seize, or annex, the occupied West Bank, which it captured in 1967 and where millions of Palestinians live.
Michael Sfard, an Israeli human rights lawyer, said: "The bottom line is that [for] anyone who thought the question of annexation was foggy this order should end any doubts. What this order does is transfer vast areas of administrative power from the military commander to Israeli civilians working for the government."
The move is the latest coup for Smotrich, who became finance minister and a minister in the defence ministry after a coalition agreement between his far-right Religious Zionis m party and the prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu's Likud.
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