Far-right Israeli minister’s call to annex West Bank sparks outrage

Unlock the Editor’s Digest for free

Roula Khalaf, Editor of the FT, selects her favourite stories in this weekly newsletter.

Western diplomats have condemned comments by Israel’s far-right finance minister suggesting that the country will look to annex the occupied West Bank next year.

Buoyed by Donald Trump’s victory in last week’s US presidential election, Bezalel Smotrich wrote on X on Monday that 2025 would be “the year of sovereignty in Judea and Samaria”, using the Jewish biblical name favoured by Israeli nationalists for the West Bank.

Josep Borrell, the EU’s foreign policy chief, slammed the proposal as a “clear step towards illegal annexation”.

He wrote on X that the move would undermine international law, violate Palestinians’ rights “and threatens any prospects for a 2-state solution” to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

Steffen Seibert, Germany’s ambassador to Israel, said “any preparation to implement this goal is in full breach of international law”.

“We strongly condemn this announcement which threatens the stability of the entire region,” he wrote on X.

Smotrich, along with many other Israeli ultranationalists, welcomed Trump’s victory.

During his first term in office, Trump moved the US embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem, recognised Israel’s annexation of the occupied Golan Heights and cut funding to the Palestinians.

However, Trump’s 2020 “peace plan” for the Middle East, while heavily tilted towards Israeli interests, was rejected by large swaths of the Israeli settler movement, including Smotrich.

The plan allowed for all Israelis to remain in their West Bank settlements, considered illegal by much of the international community — but allocated about 70 per cent of West Bank land for a future Palestinian state.