Israeli far-right Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich announced on Monday that he had submitted a plan to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to take control of strategic land in the occupied West Bank.
The announcement represents a clear challenge to the European Union’s decision to impose sanctions on Israeli settlers and groups involved in supporting settlement activity.
In response to the EU decision, Smotrich posted on X, claiming that “European hypocrisy knows no bounds.”
“No one will force the State of Israel to pursue a policy of national suicide,” he said, claiming that the attempt to turn the national conflict against Palestinian terrorism into a crime will fail.
READ: EU agrees on sanctions targeting Israeli occupiers in West Bank
The Israeli minister, who also holds a ministerial role within the Defence Ministry, called for “strengthening the settlements” and “deepening control” over what he called “Israel’s land.”
Smotrich added that he had presented a plan to the prime minister to transfer strategic areas in the occupied West Bank from Areas A and B to Area C.
Under the 1995 Oslo Accords between Israel and the Palestine Liberation Organisation, the West Bank was divided into three areas: Area A under full Palestinian control, Area B under Israeli security control and Palestinian civil administration, and Area C under full Israeli civil, administrative and security control.
Smotrich claimed that “The West Bank is Israel’s security belt, and it is time to make it clear to the world that anyone who tries to weaken our control over it will face dire consequences.”
READ: EU cannot continue to be ‘bystanders’ on Gaza, West Bank, says Irish foreign minister
