Israeli minister calls for annexation of West Bank following Trump’s election victory
The Palestinian Jalazone camp is pictured north of Ramallah in the occupied West Bank, on November 4, 2024. (AFP Photo)
Israeli Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich welcomed Donald Trump’s election victory, stating that it is an opportunity for Israel to extend full sovereignty over the occupied West Bank.
Speaking at a party conference, Smotrich said, “The time has come to apply Israeli sovereignty in Judea and Samaria,” using the biblical names for the West Bank. He emphasized that 2025 would be the “year of sovereignty.”
“2025 – the year of sovereignty in Judea and Samaria,” he said in his social media post on X, formerly known as Twitter.
Netanyahu’s coalition expands occupied West Bank control
Since late 2022, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu‘s coalition government has intensified settlement expansions in the West Bank.
Israeli authorities have approved significant land seizures, increased support for settler outposts and escalated demolition of Palestinian properties. The government’s actions have faced backlash from Palestinian authorities and human rights organizations, which argue that full annexation would undermine the prospects of a two-state solution.
Reactions from international community
Turkish Foreign Ministry released a statement regarding the issue and said, “We reject in the strongest terms the statements made by some Israeli officials in favor of annexing the occupied West Bank.”
The proposal has sparked immediate reactions. Jordan‘s Foreign Ministry condemned Smotrich’s remarks, calling them a violation of international law.
The Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Expatriates condemned in the strongest terms the racist, provocative and extremist statements made by the extremist Israeli Minister Bezalel Smotrich, calling for imposing Israeli sovereignty over the occupied West Bank and building and expanding settlements, in flagrant violation of international law and the inalienable right of the Palestinian people to establish their independent, sovereign state on the lines of June 4, 1967, with occupied Jerusalem as its capital.
The official spokesman for the Ministry, Ambassador Dr. Sufian Al-Qudah, stressed the Kingdom’s absolute rejection and condemnation of these provocative calls, and that Israel has no sovereignty over the occupied Palestinian territories, stressing that these illegal Israeli statements and measures constitute a flagrant violation of international law and UN Security Council resolutions, especially Resolution 2334, which condemns all Israeli measures aimed at changing the demographic composition, character and status of the Palestinian territories occupied since 1967, including East Jerusalem, and affirms that all Israeli settlement activities in the occupied Palestinian territories, including East Jerusalem, are illegal under international law, in addition to the advisory opinion of the International Court of Justice, which confirmed the illegality of the Israeli occupation, Israeli settlements and their annexation of the occupied Palestinian territories.
Ambassador Al-Qudah called on the international community to assume its legal and moral responsibilities, and to compel Israel and its extremist government to stop its aggression against Gaza and Lebanon, and its dangerous escalation in the occupied West Bank, and to provide the necessary protection for the Palestinian people and fulfill their legitimate rights to establish their independent, sovereign state on the lines of June 4, 1967, with occupied Jerusalem as its capital.
Jordan Ministry of Foreign Affairs
The European Union’s foreign policy chief, Josep Borrell, criticized the statements on social media, warning that annexation would threaten the possibility of a two-state solution and undermine Palestinian rights.
Trump’s previous stance on annexation
While Trump’s administration previously presented a peace plan in 2020 that included potential annexation of West Bank settlements, it also allowed for the establishment of a Palestinian state.
Trump’s former advisers have cautioned Israeli ministers against assuming automatic U.S. support for annexation during his second term, citing potential diplomatic repercussions.
One former Trump aide told an Israeli minister that a second Trump administration would not back applying Israeli sovereignty to settlements “in a vacuum,” just like it did not do so in 2020, the second Israeli official recalled.
After the Palestinian Authority immediately rejected Trump’s 2020 “Peace to Prosperity” proposal, the Trump administration worked with Israel to plan for partial West Bank annexation, but the effort was shelved in exchange for the United Arab Emirates (UAE) agreeing to normalize relations with the Tel Aviv.
The commitment that the U.S. made to the UAE to block an Israeli annexation move is set to expire at the end of 2024, but a former Trump official told The Times of Israel that the conditions for U.S. support for Jerusalem applying its sovereignty over settlements are not expected to change drastically.
“If it happens, it will have to be part of a process,” the former Trump official said.
Comments from Trump’s former envoy to the Middle East
In a statement to The Times of Israel responding to this report, Trump’s former envoy to the Middle East, Jason D. Greenblatt offered a similar stance.
“I think it’s important for those in Israel who are celebrating President Trump’s victory to do so because of President Trump’s strong support for Israel, as evidenced by the many historic things he did during his first term. Certain Israeli ministers are assuming that the extension of Israeli sovereignty in Judea and Samaria is now automatically a done deal and that it will happen almost as soon as President Trump is sworn in.”
“I suggest they take a breath. If I were advising those ministers, I would highly recommend that their focus initially be on working closely with Prime Minister Netanyahu to enable him to deepen Israel’s relationship with the US and to allow him to work on the tremendous threats and challenges Israel is now facing. There will be a time to have a discussion about Judea and Samaria, but context and timing are important,” Greenblatt added.
