Israel's Smotrich calls for annexation of occupied West Bank: What we know
Israeli far-right minister and long-time supporter of Israeli settlements Bezalel Smotrich said on Monday that he had ordered preparations for an Israeli annexation of the occupied West Bank.
Israeli Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich said on Monday that Donald Trump’s election opens up an opportunity for an Israeli annexation of the occupied West Bank and that he has already ordered his department to prepare for this annexation.
In a press conference before a meeting of his Religious Zionism Party in the Knesset, Smotrich said that “the time has come to apply [Israeli] sovereignty to the settlements in Judea and Samaria (the biblical term by which some Israelis refer to the occupied West Bank).”
Smotrich is the leader of the far-right Religious Zionism Party and — per a February 2023 agreement with former Defense Minister Yoav Gallant — maintains a ministerial role in Israel’s Defense Ministry, in which he has significant authority over the Civil Administration and Coordinator of Government Activities in the Territories, effectively supervising Israeli settlements in the West Bank and east Jerusalem.
2025: The year of the West Bank
“The year 2025 will be the year of sovereignty in the West Bank. I have instructed the Defense Ministry and the Civil Administration to begin comprehensive, professional groundwork to prepare the necessary infrastructure for applying sovereignty,” he said.
In late October, Smotrich made similar comments regarding Israeli annexation of the West Bank and Gaza to show "the entire world that a Palestinian state will not be established." He added that Palestinians should retain limited, local self-rule "devoid of national characteristics."
More than 500,000 Israeli settlers live in the West Bank, while roughly 3.3 million Palestinians live there. The international community considers the settlements illegal, in violation of Article 49 of the Fourth Geneva Convention and several other UN resolutions.
Smotrich praised Trump’s first term as US president and said that it resulted in positive developments for Israel, referencing the transfer of the US Embassy to Jerusalem, the recognition of the annexed Syrian Golan Heights as Israeli territory, and the administration’s declaration that Israeli West Bank settlements were not inconsistent with international law. Smotrich added that the US' current Biden administration "unfortunately chose to intervene in Israeli democracy and personally not to cooperate with me."
“I have no doubt that President Trump, who showed courage and determination in his decisions in the first term, will support the State of Israel in this move.”
Smotrich, a far-right nationalist, said that the “only way to remove” the “threat” of a Palestinian state “is to apply Israeli sovereignty over the entire settlements in Judea and Samaria.”
“The new Nazis have to pay a price in the territory that will be taken from them forever both in Gaza and in Judea and Samaria (the occupied West Bank),” Smotrich said, presumably referring to Hamas.
Smotrich regularly makes extremist and inflammatory comments. In August, Smotrich — referencing the ongoing war in Gaza — said that "no one in the world will allow us to starve 2 million people [in Gaza], even though it might be justified and moral in order to free the hostages," referencing Israeli hostages held captive by Hamas for over a year. On another occasion in March 2023, he called on Israel to "erase" the Palestinian village of Hawara, and later that month he said that "there is no such thing as a Palestinian people."
During Trump’s first term in office, Israel formulated a plan to annex Area C of the West Bank — which is one of three regions established under the 1993 and 1995 Oslo Accords — yet the plans never materialized. Area C of the West Bank is already wholly under the control of the Israeli military and makes up roughly 60% of West Bank territory. In Areas A and B, respectively, constituting 18% and 21% of the territory, the Palestinian Authority has limited governing authority, as external security affairs are still run by the Israeli military.
Israel's new foreign minister, Gideon Saar, was asked in a press conference in Jerusalem on Monday about Smotrich’s remarks. “A decision has not been made on the issue,” he replied. “The last time we discussed this issue (on the annexation of the West Bank) was during the first term of President Trump … and so let's say that if it will be relevant, it will be discussed again also with our friends in Washington.”
Condemnations
Nabil Abu Rudeineh, a spokesperson for Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, condemned Smotrich’s comments, saying that plan to annex the West Bank would serve as an enforcement of Israel’s “racist expansion strategy.”
Rudeineh also said that the plan “defies the international community and its resolutions, particularly the United Nations General Assembly resolution concerning enforcing the International Court of Justice’s decision.”
Jordan's Ministry of Foreign Affairs denounced Smotrich's statement in a Monday release, saying that it "condemns in the strongest terms the racist, provocative and extremist statements made by the extremist Israeli Minister Bezalel Smotrich." Smotrich's call for annexation, the ministry said, is "in flagrant violation of international law and the inalienable right of the Palestinian people to establish their independent sovereign state."
