Israel’s far-right finance minister Bezalel Smotrich pledged on Monday to annex Israeli settlements within the occupied West Bank in 2025, calling the return of Donald Trump to energy within the United States “an important opportunity.”
“The year 2025 will be, with God’s help, the year of sovereignty in Judea and Samaria,” he mentioned, referring to the occupied Palestinian territory.
Israel has occupied the West Bank since 1967. Palestinians declare the territory as a part of a future impartial state, and have repeatedly warned that Israeli settlements there are an impediment to peace.
Smotrich, whose ministerial portfolio additionally consists of some areas of the protection ministry’s work, mentioned he had ordered preparations for “applying sovereignty” over Israeli settlements.
Speaking at a gathering in parliament, he mentioned he had “instructed the director of settlement affairs in the defense ministry and the Civil Administration… to prepare the necessary infrastructure for applying sovereignty.”
Smotrich congratulated U.S. President-elect Donald Trump on his “incredible and sweeping victory”, which the far-right politician mentioned “also brings an important opportunity for the State of Israel.”
“During his first term, President Trump led dramatic moves,” Smotrich mentioned.
These included recognizing Israel’s sovereignty over the occupied Golan Heights, breaking with a lot of the worldwide group by transferring the U.S. embassy to Jerusalem, and brokering a set of normalization offers between Israel and several other Arab international locations.
Before the normalization agreements, dubbed the Abraham Accords, the Israeli authorities had mentioned it could annex giant Israeli settlement blocs within the West Bank, earlier than scrapping the plan because the offers have been introduced.
“We were on the verge of applying sovereignty over the settlements in Judea and Samaria,” Smotrich mentioned.
“Now it is time to do it.”
He mentioned he would push the federal government to work along with the brand new U.S. administration on the matter.
Earlier on Monday, Israel’s newly appointed Foreign Minister Gideon Saar mentioned Palestinian statehood was not “realistic,” after Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas reiterated his demand for a “sovereign” nation.
“I don’t think this position is realistic today and we must be realistic,” Saar advised reporters.
The Palestinian overseas ministry condemned Saar’s remarks as an “extension of the war of extermination and displacement against our people.”
It additionally mentioned the feedback have been in “disregard for international legitimacy… and the international consensus on the two-state solution” to the Israeli-Palestinian battle.
Excluding East Jerusalem, the West Bank is residence to 3 million Palestinians alongside round 500,000 Israelis residing in settlement which might be unlawful below worldwide regulation.
Source: www.dailysabah.com