Israel’s extremist Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich has announced plans for the annexation of the occupied West Bank in 2025.
Next year, 2025, will mark the year of applying Israeli sovereignty over the occupied West Bank, thus ending “the threat” of a Palestinian state, Smotrich said on Monday, defying international law under which the West Bank is occupied Palestinian territory.
Speaking at a meeting of the Religious Zionism Party, which he leads, Smotrich declared that “the only way to remove the threat of a Palestinian state from the agenda is to apply Israeli sovereignty over the settlements in Judea and Samaria (the West Bank).”
Smotrich said he had instructed the Settlement Division and the Civil Administration, both under the Defence Ministry, to begin preparations for the necessary infrastructure to implement this policy.
Pre-emptively anticipating objections, Smotrich said: “Even if there are some who will protest, including from Arab states, we have already proven through the Abraham Accords that when Israel stands firm, it gains support and recognition from both the U.S. and neighbouring Arab countries.”
Later, Smotrich wrote on X “2025 – The year of sovereignty in Judea and Samaria.”
This is not the first time Smotrich has raised the issue. In June, he confirmed reports from The New York Times that he had a “secret plan” to annex the West Bank and thwart any efforts to incorporate it into a future Palestinian state.
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Congratulating Donald Trump
Smotrich also congratulated Donald Trump on his U.S .presidential election victory last week, according to Israeli daily Yedioth Ahronoth.
Smotrich criticised the current U.S. administration under President Joe Biden, saying: “After years during which the current administration regrettably chose to interfere in Israeli democracy and refused to cooperate with me personally as Israel’s finance minister, I congratulate the newly elected administration and look forward to joint efforts to strengthen economic and trade relations between the two countries.”
He further argued that Trump’s win brings a valuable opportunity for Israel, saying that in his first term, in 2017-2021, “Trump led significant moves, including relocating the U.S. Embassy to Jerusalem, recognising Jerusalem as Israel’s capital, acknowledging Israeli sovereignty over the Golan Heights, and legitimizing settlements in Judea and Samaria (biblical names for the West Bank).”
Smotrich also highlighted the Abraham Accords, which normalised relations between Israel, the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain, and Morocco.
“We were on the verge of applying sovereignty over settlements in Judea and Samaria (the West Bank) before the Biden administration,” Smotrich said. “Now, it’s time to act.”
He also said there is a broad consensus within both the Israeli coalition and opposition against the establishment of a Palestinian state, which he argued would threaten Israel’s existence.
‘Secret plan’ for Israel to annex West Bank
Meanwhile, Israeli media said on Tuesday that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu plans to push for annexing the occupied West Bank when U.S. President-elect Donald Trump takes office.
According to the Israeli public broadcaster KAN, Netanyahu said in closed-door talks that he will reintroduce the annexation of the West Bank to the agenda of his government when Trump assumes office.
In 2020, Netanyahu planned to “annex” the illegal Jewish settlements in the West Bank and the Jordan Valley, based on the so-called Middle East peace plan announced by Trump in January of the same year.
Territories Netanyahu planned to annex at that time constitute about 30% of the West Bank. His plan, however, wasn’t launched under international pressure and lack of U.S. approval.
International law views both the West Bank and East Jerusalem as “occupied territories” and considers all Jewish settlement-building activity there as illegal.
Tensions have been running high across the occupied West Bank due to Israel’s brutal offensive on the Gaza Strip, which has killed more than 43,600 Palestinians, mostly women and children, since Oct. 7, 2023.
At least 780 Palestinians have since been killed and nearly 6,300 others injured by Israeli army fire in the occupied territory, according to the Health Ministry.
The escalation follows a landmark opinion in July by the International Court of Justice that declared Israel’s decades-long occupation of Palestinian land “illegal” and demanded the evacuation of all existing settlements in the West Bank and East Jerusalem.
Palestinian reaction
Reacting to Smotrich’s comments, Hamas said this “categorically confirms the colonial intentions of the occupation” and “refutes the claims of those deluded into believing in achieving peace and coexistence with this Nazi entity based on terrorism and the theft of rights and land.”
Hamas said: “We, in the Islamic Resistance Movement (Hamas), reaffirm that we, along with our Palestinian people and all resistance factions, will continue to confront the occupation’s schemes, and we will not allow the terrorist Smotrich or any other war criminals of the Zionist entity to carry out any of their evil plans, which will not grant them legitimacy over our occupied land, nor will it alter the historical facts, that the West Bank is purely Palestinian land and an integral part of our independent Palestinian state with Al-Quds as its capital.
“We call on the Arab League, the Organization of Islamic Cooperation, and the United Nations to take active measures to curb this Zionist colonial gang that continues to defy international legitimacy, and to stop these policies and plans that will only lead to more tension and escalation on the regional and international levels.”
The Palestinian Foreign Ministry also denounced the Israeli plans as “a distinct form of colonial racism” and an extension of “genocide and displacement against Palestinians.”
The ministry criticised the policy as a “repeated disdain” of the international consensus on a two-state solution.
Arab world reaction
The Qatari Foreign Ministry called the Israeli minister’s call a “blatant violation of international law.”
A ministry statement denounced the call as a “dangerous escalation that would hinder the chances of peace in the region, especially with the ongoing brutal war on the Gaza Strip and its horrific repercussions.”
It called on the international community “to stand firmly against the occupation’s settlement, colonial and racist policies, and its repeated attacks on the Palestinian rights, especially its ongoing crimes in the West Bank.”
“The repeated Israeli statements that violate international laws and resolutions clearly reveal that the occupation is the obstacle to any efforts for peace and stability” in the region, the ministry said.
The Egyptian Foreign Ministry decried Smotrich’s call as a “flagrant violation of international law and international humanitarian law.”
“The irresponsible and extremist remarks by a member of the Israeli government clearly reflect Israel’s rejection of adopting the peace option in the region,” the ministry said in a statement.
Jordan termed the Israeli minister’s call “racist” and “extremist.” It called Smotrich’s statements a “blatant violation of international law and the inalienable right of the Palestinian people to establish their independent state with sovereignty along the June 4, 1967 borders and its capital in occupied Jerusalem.”
