JERUSALEM (VINnews) — Israel should annex 82% of Judea and Samaria, Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich said Wednesday at a press conference, adding that he would like Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu to support the move.
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In response, the United Arab Emirates said any annexation of the West Bank would constitute a red line for Abu Dhabi that would severely undermine the spirit of the Abraham Accords, which normalized relations between the two countries.
Emirati officials also warned senior Trump administration officials against Israeli moves to apply sovereignty over parts of Judea and Samaria
“This would destroy the Abraham Accords,” an Emirati official was quoted as saying. “Do not allow Israel to annex parts of the West Bank.”
The Abraham Accords, which are the agreement between the UAE and Israel, were signed on the condition that Israel would forgo applying sovereignty in exchange for normalization, the Emirati officials said, although the condition is not formally a part of the written agreement.
Outlining his proposal to annex Judea and Samaria (besides Palestinian population centers), Smotrich said: “Beyond our biblical, historical, and moral right to all parts of our land, the political and security role of sovereignty is to ensure that no Arab terrorist state arises in the heart of our country.”
“Therefore, the sovereignty map must guarantee that no Arab terrorist state will be established alongside our sovereignty,” he said, showing the map with the outline of his proposal.
“Not settlement blocs; not Area C; not partial sovereignty,” he added. “All of these leave the rest of the territory to the enemy and still enable it to establish, God forbid, a state larger than Israel and reduce us to Auschwitz borders.”
Smotrich called on Netanyahu to “convene the government and make a historic decision to apply Israeli sovereignty to all the open areas of Judea and Samaria.”
“This term of office will be remembered as a historic turning point in fortifying Israel’s security and borders, in defeating our enemies and the annihilation threats they posed to us, and in changing Israel’s security and settlement doctrine,” he said.
Addressing Netanyahu, Smotrich said: “And you, Mr. Prime Minister, will enter the history books of our nation for generations as a great leader who knew how to seize the moment, take the opportunity, and rescue the State of Israel once and for all from the idea of partition and from the existential threat euphemistically called a ‘Palestinian state.’”
During the Oslo Accords signed between Israel and the Palestinian Authority in the 1990s, the territories were split into three different designations: Area A, chiefly Palestinian towns and cities that are under full security and civilian control of the PA; Area B, which is under Israel’s security control but the Palestinians’ civilian control; and Area C, which is under Israeli security and civilian control.
Smotrich approved a major construction project in the West Bank in August, marking a significant expansion in Ma’aleh Adumim in an area known as E1, which is located in Area C.
Regarding his E1 approval, he said: “For years we were told that if we approved new settlements, the Middle East would go up in flames; that if we approved construction in E1, the so-called ‘powder keg’ of the Middle East would explode.”
“We did it, and thank God nothing happened,” Smotrich said. “That is exactly what will happen with sovereignty.”
Netanyahu did not respond yet to the Smotrich initiative, but the cabinet meeting on Thursday focused instead on the security situation in Judea and Samaria and the threat of possible violence in the region if a Palestinian state is announced at the forthcoming UN General Assembly and several countries recognize the state. Military officials warn that in this event the region “could erupt instantly.”