HAS a few hours before a gala to which he was invited in France, his remarks caused controversy. A far-right Israeli minister, Bezalel Smotrich, on Monday promised Israel's annexation of Israeli settlements in the occupied West Bank in 2025, saying he saw “an opportunity” in Donald Trump's return to power in the United States.
During a speech in Parliament, Bezalel Smotrich, Minister of Finance, also responsible for civil management in the West Bank, and therefore the settlements, affirmed that the “creation of a Palestinian state […] would endanger the existence of the State of Israel. “The only way to eliminate this threat […] is to apply Israeli sovereignty over the settlements of Judea and Samaria,” said Bezalel Smotrich, using the name that Israelis give to the West Bank, Palestinian territory occupied by Israel since 1967.
Apart from annexed East Jerusalem, more than 490,000 Israelis live in the West Bank, in settlements that the UN considers illegal under international law, among 3 million Palestinians. Himself a settler, Bezalel Smotrich specified that 2025 would be “the year of sovereignty in Judea and Samaria” and that he had instructed the administration to organize itself “to prepare the infrastructure necessary for the application of Israeli sovereignty over the West Bank settlements.
“I have no doubt that President Trump, who has demonstrated courage and determination in his decisions during his first term, will support the State of Israel in this endeavor,” he said. In a press release, the Palestinian Minister of Foreign Affairs “condemned in the strongest terms” the remarks of Bezalel Smotrich, symptomatic according to him of a “racist colonialism par excellence” and a “repeated contempt for international law” encouraged by “the international failure to enforce United Nations resolutions relating to the Palestinian question”.
His presence in Paris uncertain
During his first stint in power, Donald Trump made numerous gestures in favor of Israel, moving the American embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem, recognizing Israeli sovereignty over the occupied and annexed Syrian Golan Heights and contributing to normalization ties between Israel and several Arab countries with the Abraham Accords.
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Bezalel Smotrich is scheduled to participate on Wednesday, November 13 in Paris in the “Israel forever” gala, an event in support of Israel organized by several far-right personalities. The gala, for which French associations, unions and left-wing parties have unsuccessfully demanded the cancellation, will be held on the eve of the France-Israel football match. This meeting is considered “high risk” by the French authorities after the violence which occurred last Thursday in Amsterdam on the sidelines of a match involving the Israeli club Maccabi Tel-Aviv.
Guest of RFI and France 24 this Tuesday morning, the Minister of Foreign Affairs, Jean-Noël Barrot, said that he had “no confirmation of his coming to France” at this stage.
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