The far-right Israeli 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 would deepen Israel’s mounting international isolation.
Mr. Smotrich’s announcement came after a growing numbers of countries, including longstanding Israeli allies like Britain and France, said they would recognize a Palestinian state this month. They have also demanded an immediate end to the war in Gaza. Far from curbing Israeli hard-liners, however, the declarations have prompted them to double down.
.On Wednesday, Mr. Smotrich said Israel should annex roughly 82 percent of the West Bank, and said this was the proper response to international moves to recognize a Palestinian state. He called it “a preventative step against the diplomatic assault that’s planned against us.”
“The main goal is to remove, once and for all, this idea of a Palestinian state,” he told reporters at a news conference in Jerusalem.
Mr. Smotrich provided few details about what his plan would mean for Palestinians living in Israeli-annexed areas.
Israel has long shied away from formally annexing the West Bank, partly because of concerns that it could spur a global backlash. It is unclear whether Benjamin Netanyahu, the Israeli prime minister, supports Mr. Smotrich’s proposal.
But even the threat of annexing the West Bank appeared to inflame diplomatic tensions. The United Arab Emirates, which normalized ties with Israel five years ago, issued a rare warning following Mr. Smotrich’s announcement that annexation would constitute “a red line.”
Lana Nusseibeh, a senior Emirati official, said in a statement that the proposed move would “severely undermine the vision and spirit” of the Abraham Accords, an agreement signed in 2020 by four Arab states, including the U.A.E., to expand ties with Israel.
Mr. Netanyahu has since invested considerable effort into normalizing Israel’s relationship with Saudi Arabia, which he hopes will form part of his legacy. Ms. Nusseibeh noted that annexing the West Bank would also end further “regional integration.”
Israel has occupied the West Bank since the 1967 Arab-Israeli war, when it seized the land from Jordan. Since then, 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. Mr. Netanyahu, as well as many other members of his government, oppose Palestinian statehood, arguing that it would present a security threat to Israel.
The Palestinian Authority, which administers some areas of the West Bank, said in a statement that Mr. Smotrich’s remarks were a “direct threat” to efforts to create a Palestinian state.
Mr. Smotrich, a longtime settler leader, suggested that Palestinians “would continue to run their own affairs” on a local level, but added that “the territory would be ours.”
Within its internationally recognized borders, Israel is a democracy where Palestinian and Arab citizens can vote in elections and sit in Parliament, although many say they still face discrimination as second-class citizens.
But in the Israeli-occupied West Bank, Palestinians live under Israeli military rule, which tightly controls their freedom of movement. They have no right to vote in Israel’s elections and are generally tried in Israeli military courts. The Palestinian Authority provides public services and coordinates closely with Israel on security.
Human rights groups argue that Israel’s two-tiered system of control in the West Bank is comparable to apartheid-era South Africa. Israel rejects that characterization.
Mr. Smotrich has long called for Israel to assert full control over the West Bank, without granting its Palestinian residents the right to vote in Israeli elections. Like many on the Israeli right, he avoids using the word annexation — which could imply that the territory was occupied — preferring instead to speak of Israeli sovereignty.
But Mr. Smotrich provided few details on Wednesday about what his plan would mean for Palestinians living in Israeli-annexed areas.
“I have no interest in allowing them to enjoy everything that the State of Israel has to offer. We did not establish this country to make our enemies prosper,” Mr. Smotrich told reporters.
Critics in Israel of Mr. Netanyahu’s government fear that annexing the West Bank would further isolate the country, as it already faces mounting international condemnation over the war in Gaza.
More than 60,000 people have been killed there in Israel’s campaign against Hamas, according to Gazan health officials, who do not distinguish between civilians and combatants. The war began after a Hamas-led attack on Israel on Oct. 7, 2023, when some 1,200 people were killed and 250 were taken to Gaza as hostages.
Mr. Smotrich noted that Israel had recently authorized settlement construction in a sensitive area of the West Bank east of Jerusalem, known as E-1, with little practical consequences. Successive U.S. administrations had opposed building settlements there, fearing it would endanger the contiguity of a future Palestinian state.
“We did it and thank God nothing happened. That is exactly what will happen with sovereignty,” said Mr. Smotrich.
Aaron Boxerman is a Times reporter covering Israel and Gaza. He is based in Jerusalem.
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