Israeli Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich said this Monday that the time has come to apply Israeli sovereignty over the West Bank. “The year 2025 will be the year of sovereignty in the West Bank,” he said at a meeting of his far-right faction in the Israeli parliament or Knesset, also welcoming Trump’s US presidential election victory over Kamala Harris.
“I have no doubt that President Trump, who showed courage and determination in his decisions during his first term, will support the State of Israel in this move,” he added.
Asserting that he had instructed the Ministry of Defense’s Settlement Division and Civil Administration to commence comprehensive and professional preparatory work to establish the necessary infrastructure for implementing sovereignty in the Palestinian territory, Smotrich remarked that with the return of President-elect Donald Trump to power in the US, Israel has a golden opportunity to enforce Israeli sovereignty over the occupied area.
“2025: the year of sovereignty in Judea and Samaria,” Smotrich also wrote on X, using the biblical name by which Israel refers to the occupied West Bank.
This, however, is not the first time that the far-right minister openly speaks of his intention to annex the West Bank. It was in March this year, for example, that he stood by a map of ‘Greater Israel’ during a conference in Paris and portrayed the West Bank and Jordan as part of the self-proclaimed Jewish State. Smotrich – who himself lives in an illegal Israeli settlement – also holds a position within Israel’s Defense Ministry where he is authorized to oversee the administration of the occupied West Bank and its settlements.
Trump unlikely to support Smotrich’s annexation plan
Despite Smotrich’s high hopes that the era of Trump’s presidency could be the perfect time to annex the West Bank, two former Trump administration officials warned Smotrich on this Tuesday not to assume that the US president-elect will support West Bank annexation.
US allies in the Gulf, including Saudi Arabia and the UAE, may oppose the move, especially as Trump could prioritize cooperation with these nations on issues like countering Iran, competing with China and addressing the Ukraine war, one Israeli official noted.
Moreover, a former Trump aide informed an Israeli minister that a second Trump administration would not support Israeli sovereignty over settlements “in a vacuum”, similar to its stance in 2020.
