Smotrich hails ‘full US support’ for illegal settler expansion in occupied West Bank
Trump said during his meeting with Netanyahu that the
two did not agree ‘100 percent’ on the West Bank, but that the Israeli premier
would ‘do the right thing’
DEC 30, 2025
Bezalel Smotrich, Israel’s finance minister and
staunch backer of the illegal settler movement, said on
30 December that Washington has given Tel Aviv “full support” to expand
settlements in the occupied West Bank in violation of international law.
“The US administration is giving us full support to
expand settlements in the West Bank in order to undermine the establishment of
a Palestinian state,” Smotrich said.
The statement coincided with Israeli Prime Minister
Benjamin Netanyahu’s visit to the US and came after a meeting between Netanyahu
and US President Donald Trump.
“We have had a discussion, big discussion for a long
time on the West Bank. And I wouldn't say we agree on the West Bank 100
percent, but we'll come to a conclusion on the West Bank,” Trump said after the meeting.
When asked by reporters what the disagreement was
about, Trump said, “I don't want to do that, it will be announced at an
appropriate time.”
Netanyahu “will do the right thing,” the US president
went on to say.
Since coming to power in late 2022, Netanyahu’s
government has been rapidly advancing Israel’s longstanding goal of annexing
the West Bank, which was occupied illegally during the 1967 war.
New illegal settlements are being established at an
accelerated rate, and the Knesset has approved a bill calling to impose Israeli “sovereignty” over the
territory.
Trump recently claimed that he would “not allow”
Israel to annex the occupied West Bank.
“Trump and his top advisors asked Netanyahu to change
Israel's policies in the occupied West Bank during their meeting on Monday,”
informed sources told Axios on 30 December.
“The White House thinks a violent escalation in the
West Bank would undermine efforts to implement the Gaza peace agreement and
prevent the expansion of the Abraham Accords before the end of Trump's term,”
the sources went on to say, adding that the US president's team asked the
Israelis to “calm things down.”
“The president and his team raised settler violence
against Palestinian civilians, the financial instability of the Palestinian
Authority, and Israeli settlements expansion. Netanyahu spoke very strongly
against settler violence and said he is going to take more action,” the sources
said.
A source told the Times of Israel that
Trump’s team “took particular issue with unchecked settler violence, settlement
expansion, and Israel’s withholding of several billion dollars in Palestinian
Authority tax revenues.”
Smotrich has been leading a campaign of financial
strangulation against the Palestinian Authority (PA), which has brought the
Palestinian economy and the Ramallah-based government to the brink of collapse.
Tel Aviv is working to punish the PA for lobbying in
favor of Palestinian statehood and has rejected the clause in Trump’s Gaza
‘peace plan’ which would see Ramallah return to governance in the besieged
strip.
The Israeli military has been occupying multiple West Bank refugee camps since January this year, when it
launched a massive operation in the territory beginning in the city of Jenin.
Since then, it has been carrying out a systematic
campaign of destruction and displacement.
Tens of thousands of Palestinians have been uprooted
from their homes in the occupied West Bank since the start of the year, mainly
in Jenin, Tulkarem, and Tubas.
Army-backed settler violence against Palestinian
civilians in the occupied West Bank has also surged dramatically in the past
few months. Palestinian farmland and crops are constantly set ablaze, and
civilians are attacked on a near-daily basis, while land grabs and
settlement expansion continue unabated.
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