West Bank: Israeli minister calls for preparations for settlement annexation

CNN
—

Israel’s right-wing Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich has ordered preparations for the annexation of settlements in the Israeli-occupied West Bank.

Smotrich, who is in charge of settlements, said Monday that he had instructed his department to “prepare the necessary infrastructure for the exercise of sovereignty.”

It is unclear whether his long-held desire to apply full Israeli law to West Bank settlements has any chance of being implemented soon.

Gideon Sa’ar, Israel’s new foreign minister, said on Monday that the government had not yet made a decision on the issue of annexation, but noted that it had been discussed during Donald Trump’s first term as US president, adding “If it comes to that,” he added, “if it becomes relevant, it will be discussed again with our friends in Washington.”

Observers said Smotrich’s announcement was likely due in large part to his staking out political ground in Israel’s fractious domestic politics.

Still, it was quickly condemned by the Palestinian Authority, whose foreign ministry called such comments “a blatantly colonial and racist continuation of the ongoing campaign of extermination and expulsion against the Palestinian people.”

Nabil Abu Rudeineh, spokesman for the Palestinian Authority presidency, said Smotrich’s comments confirmed “the Israeli government’s intention to finalize its plans to take control of the West Bank by 2025” and said he had criticized both the “Israeli occupation authorities.” The US government is also responsible for Israel’s “continuance of its crimes, its aggression and its disregard for international legitimacy and international law.”

Smotrich told the Knesset, Israel’s parliament, that US President-elect Donald Trump’s victory in the US elections “brings with it an important opportunity for the State of Israel.”

The “only way” to eliminate the “threat” of a Palestinian state, Smotrich added, “is to exercise Israeli sovereignty over the entire settlements in Judea and Samaria,” the biblical term Israelis use to describe the West Bank.

Israel has occupied the West Bank since seizing the territory from Jordan in 1967. In the decades since, it has expanded Jewish settlements in the region, which are considered illegal under international law, although it signed a series of peace agreements with the Palestinians in the 1990s.

Around half a million Israelis live in settlements in the West Bank. Smotrich, himself a settler, has long called for the application of Israeli law in the settlements and previously opposed the creation of an independent Palestinian state.

The minister said he intends to “bring about an executive decision” that will allow Israel “to work with the new administration of President Trump and the international community to exercise sovereignty and gain American and international recognition.”

During his first term, Trump made several moves in favor of Israel. In 2017, he recognized Jerusalem as Israel’s capital, upending decades of U.S. policy and international consensus. He also recognized Israel’s sovereignty over the Golan Heights, which it captured from Syria in the 1967 war and which is also considered occupied under international law.

“I have instructed the settlement department in the Ministry of Defense and the Civil Administration to begin professional and comprehensive work to prepare the necessary infrastructure for the exercise of sovereignty,” Smotrich said on Monday.

“In his first term, President Trump has taken dramatic steps, including … affirming the legality and legitimacy of the settlements in Judea and Samaria,” Smotrich added. “There were also the Abraham Accords — peace for peace.” Those accords, a series of agreements made possible by Trump’s first administration, led to Israel normalizing relations with four Arab nations.

“We were on the verge of exercising sovereignty over the settlements in Judea and Samaria, and now is the time.”

Hamas, the Palestinian militant group that fights Israel in Gaza, said Smotrich’s comments confirmed “the colonial intentions of the occupation” and “refuted the claims of those who harbor illusions about achieving peace and coexistence with Israel.”

Another militant group, the Palestinian Islamic Jihad, said this amounted to “an admission of the open war that the criminal organization is waging against the Palestinian people.”

CNN has reached out to the Israeli prime minister’s office for a response to Smotrich’s announcement.

This is a developing story and will be updated.