Israeli Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich is planning to expand Israeli settlements in the West Bank. He said the thousands of new homes will “bury the idea of a Palestinian state.”
On Wednesday, Smotrich announced the approval of 3,400 new homes for Jewish settlers in the West Bank. The new community will bisect the occupied territory, where some 700,000 Israeli settlers already reside.
“Approval of construction plans in E1 buries the idea of a Palestinian state and continues the many steps we are taking on the ground as part of the de facto sovereignty plan that we began implementing with the establishment of the government,” Smotrich said.
In May, the Israeli Security Cabinet approved a resolution that gives Tel Aviv full control over ‘Area C’ of the West Bank, which was established in 1995 under the Oslo Accords and was originally intended to pave the way toward a Palestinian state. At the time the measure was authorized, Smotrich touted the decision as a “de facto” annexation of over half of the West Bank. His overall goal for the territory is to give the choice between subjection, emigration, and death.
Under Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, Tel Aviv has long worked to prevent the creation of a Palestinian state. The prime minister even approved the funding of Hamas to give Israel a pretext to kill the ‘peace process’ with the Palestinians.
In an interview earlier this week, Netanyahu was asked by former Israeli lawmaker Sharon Gal if he had a “vision of Greater Israel.” Netanyahu replied, “Very much.” Some Israelis’ notion of ‘Greater Israel’ includes Gaza, the West Bank, along with parts of Jordan, Lebanon, Egypt, Syria, and Iraq.
Smotrich, who is himself a West Bank settler and the leader of the Religious Zionist Party, says he has the prime minister’s support. “He backs me up in everything concerning Judea and Samaria, and is letting me create the revolution,” the minister said Thursday.
