Smotrich says Israel is ‘a step away’ from annexing West Bank after Trump’s election victory

Noa Shpigel writes in Haaretz on 12 November 2024:

Israel’s Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich said on Monday at a Religious Zionism party meeting that during President-elect Donald Trump’s previous term, “We were just a step away from applying sovereignty over the settlements in Judea and Samaria [the West Bank], and now the time has come to do it.”

Smotrich welcomed Trump’s election victory, noting his success “against the establishment media, elites, and celebrities,” as he put it.

“After years in which, unfortunately, the current administration chose to interfere in Israeli democracy and personally refused to cooperate with me as Israel’s finance minister, Trump’s victory also brings an important opportunity,” Smotrich said, adding that “2025 is the year of sovereignty in Judea and Samaria. The new Nazis need to pay a price through land that will be permanently taken from them, both in Gaza and in Judea and Samaria.”

Smotrich said that he has instructed the Defense Ministry’s settlement administration division, as well as the Israeli army’s Civil Administration in the West Bank, to begin the groundwork to prepare the necessary infrastructure for applying Israeli sovereignty to the West Bank.

Regarding the possibility of a cease-fire in Lebanon, Smotrich said: “As long as the IDF’s freedom of action and operation is preserved, we will support these moves. If, God forbid, there is are limitations, we will not be partners to this policy and will not allow it to pass.” He also stressed that his faction opposes ending the war in Gaza and imposing any restrictions on military activity in the region.

Smotrich wrote in a post on X later Monday: “2025 – the year of [Israeli] sovereignty in Judea and Samaria.”

The German ambassador to Israel, Steffen Seibert, “strongly condemned” Smotrich’s remarks on Tuesday in a post on X, calling them “an open call for annexation,” and saying that “any attempt to implement this goal is in full breach of international law.”