Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs, whether he has had discussions with his Israeli counterpart on the potential effect of that country's proposals to provide administrative powers over the West Bank to its Finance Minister on the status of the West Bank.

The Foreign Secretary has not discussed this issue with his Israeli counterpart, but it has long been the Government's view that Israel's presence in the Occupied Palestinian Territories is governed by the provisions of the Geneva Convention and we repeatedly call on Israel to abide by those obligations. We are still working to understand the full consequence of the changes you refer to, but our current understanding is that the administrative powers will remain within the Ministry of Defense and Bezalel Smotrich's involvement will be in his capacity as a junior Defence Minister.