3 September 2025
Israel plans to annex 82 percent of the occupied West Bank to prevent the establishment of a Palestinian state, far-right Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich said Wednesday.
“Israeli sovereignty will be applied to 82 percent of the territory,” Smotrich, the leader of the far-right Religious Zionism Party, told a press conference in Jerusalem.
“It is time to apply Israeli sovereignty in Judea and Samaria (West Bank) and remove once and for all the idea of dividing our small land,” he said.
The extremist minister said the Palestinians’ affairs will be run by the Palestinian Authority, which will later be replaced with what he called “regional civilian management alternatives.”
Smotrich said the main principle of the annexation is “the maximum land with minimum Arab population.”
“There will never, and can never be, a Palestinian state in our land,” he claimed. “If the Palestinian Authority dares to rise up and try to harm us, we will destroy them just as we do to Hamas.”
Smotrich called the occupied West Bank annexation “a preventative step” against moves by many countries to recognise Palestinian statehood.
Source: Trt
