Far-right minister calls for Israeli sovereignty in West Bank in 2025

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JERUSALEM (Reuters) -Israel’s far-right finance minister said on Monday he hoped Israel would extend sovereignty into the occupied West Bank in 2025 and that he would push the government to engage the incoming Trump administration to gain Washington’s support.

Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich, who also wields a defence ministry supervisory role for settlers as part of his coalition deal with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, said he hoped the Trump administration would recognise an Israeli sovereignty push.

Israel’s foreign minister said separately that while no decision was made, the issue could come up in talks with the future U.S. administration in Washington.

Nabil Abu Rudeineh, the spokesperson for Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, said Smotrich’s remarks confirmed the Israeli government’s intention to annex the West Bank in defiance of international law.

“We hold the Israeli occupation authorities fully responsible for the repercussions of these dangerous policies,” he said. The United States was also responsible for the continuous support it offered to Israel’s aggression, he said.

Smotrich has for years called for Israeli sovereignty in the West Bank, land Palestinians want for a future state.

At a meeting of his far-right faction in parliament on Monday, Smotrich said he had instructed Israeli authorities overseeing West Bank settlements “to begin professional and comprehensive staff work to prepare the necessary infrastructure” for extending sovereignty, according to a statement from his office.

He also said he would push the government to engage the incoming Trump administration to recognise such a move.

However earlier on Monday, Foreign Minister Gideon Saar said the government’s position on the issue of extending sovereignty into the West Bank had not yet been settled.

“A decision has not yet been made on the issue,” he told a news conference in Jerusalem.

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

“It is important to state that Israel sees what we call Judea and Samaria and others call the West Bank not as occupied territories but as disputed territories.”

The United States has for decades backed a two-state solution between Israel and the Palestinians and has urged Israel not to expand settlements. In 2020, during Trump’s first term, discussions were held between Israel and Washington on plans to annex parts of the West Bank.

The West Bank is among territories captured by Israel in the 1967 Middle East war and where Palestinians, with international support, seek statehood. Most world powers deem the settlements illegal. Israel disputes that, citing historical claims to the West Bank and describing it as a security bulwark.

(Reporting by Steven Scheer, James Mackenzie and Ari RabinovitchEditing by Peter Graff, William Maclean and Cynthia Osterman)