Israeli minister draws criticism for saying Trump's win is an ...

A call from Israel’s ultranationalist finance minister to use Donald Trump’s election win as an opportunity to annex parts of the occupied West Bank has drawn international condemnation and fueled fears about the U.S. ally’s plans.

Bezalel Smotrich said Monday that “the time has come” to extend Israeli sovereignty over settlements in the area — land recognized by the international community as belonging to Palestinians in their quest for a future state.

The Israeli minister welcomed the president-elect’s victory and said he would seek Trump's support for the move.

“I intend, with God’s help, to lead a government decision that says that the government of Israel will work with the new administration of President Trump and the international community to apply Israeli sovereignty over Judea and Samaria,” he said, using a name employed by many Israelis for the West Bank.

Discussions on plans to annex parts of the West Bank were held between Israel and Washington during Trump’s first term, and Smotrich said that he would push his government to engage with the incoming administration to gain support.

“We will apply the sovereignty, together with our American friends,” he added.

Smotrich added that he would seek international recognition for sovereignty over the West Bank, but his announcement quickly drew global condemnation.

A State Department spokesperson called the comments “disturbing” and “not conducive to building an enduring peace.”

The Biden administration has “reiterated consistently the clear position of the United States in support of a two-state solution as part of a negotiated process that provides for an independent Palestinian state, with security guarantees for Israel,” the spokesperson said.

Germany’s ambassador in Israel, Steffen Seibert, “strongly condemned” Smotrich’s statement, which he said was “an open call for annexation.”

“Any preparation to implement this goal is in full breach of international law,” he wrote on X.

Condemning Smotrich’s call “in the strongest possible terms,” Qatar’s ministry of foreign affairs said in a statement that it represented a “blatant violation of international law.”

Nabil Abu Rudeineh, the spokesperson for the president of the Palestinian Authority, Mahmoud Abbas, said that Smotrich’s remarks confirmed the Israeli government’s intention to annex the West Bank.The Palestinian Authority administers parts of the West Bank while its rival, Hamas, is still nominally in charge of Gaza, after driving Abbas' security forces out in a 2007 takeover.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has yet to comment on Smotrich’s plan.

But his foreign minister, Gideon Saar, said that while no decision has been made on Israeli sovereignty, the issue could come up in talks with the Trump administration.

“The last time we discussed this issue was in the first term of President Trump,” he told a news conference in Jerusalem. “And so let’s say that if it will be relevant, it will be discussed again also with our friends in Washington.”

NBC News has reached out to the Trump campaign for comment.

During his first term, Trump decided to officially recognize Jerusalem as Israel’s capital, by moving the U.S. embassy there, as well as Israeli sovereignty over the contested Golan Heights. He has also expressed his support for Israeli settlements.

Smotrich's comments came a day after Netanyahu said he had spoken with Trump three times since the election.

Hanan Ashrawi, a veteran Palestinian politician and negotiator based in the occupied West Bank, said Netanyahu and Smotrich were “just articulating what they’ve been doing gradually over decades.”

“Annexation, land theft, ethnic cleansing, & erasure of Palestine are the genocidal intent of Israel,” she posted on X.

Israel has strongly denied that its forces are committing genocide against Palestinians.

Smotrich has drawn controversy since becoming part of Netanyahu's hard-line coalition government in 2022.

In March 2023, he claimed that there is “no such thing” as a Palestinian people, and in January he joined thousands of people at a conference in Jerusalem calling for Israel to rebuild settlements in Gaza and northern parts of the West Bank.

Freddie Clayton

Freddie Clayton is a freelance journalist based in London.