Israel’s far-right finance minister, Bezalel Smotrich, called on Wednesday for the country to annex most of the occupied West Bank, where around three million Palestinians live, a move that the international community has long sought to prevent.
“The main goal is to remove, once and for all, this idea of a Palestinian state,” Mr. Smotrich told reporters at a news conference in Jerusalem.
In recent weeks, a growing number of countries, including longstanding allies of Israel, have announced they would recognize a Palestinian state this month. That has prompted some right-wing Israelis, like Mr. Smotrich, to increasingly call for Israel to annex parts or all of the territory.
Mr. Smotrich said full Israeli sovereignty over the West Bank would be “a preventative step against the diplomatic assault that’s planned against us.”
Israel has occupied the West Bank since the Arab-Israel war in 1967. In the decades since, the Israeli government has built a sprawling network of settlements there, populated by about half a million Jewish settlers, and further entrenched its control.
Palestinians hope the territory will form part of a future independent state. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel, as well as many other members of his government, oppose Palestinian statehood, arguing that it would present a security threat to Israel.
Mr. Smotrich, a longtime settler leader, suggested that Israel should annex roughly 82 percent of the West Bank, excluding major Palestinian cities. Palestinians “would continue to run their own affairs” on a local level, he said, but “the territory would be ours.”
Aaron Boxerman is a Times reporter covering Israel and Gaza. He is based in Jerusalem.
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