Israeli minister calls for Palestinian 'emigration' as Israel tightens control over West Bank

A general view of new buildings in the Jewish settlement of Kadhim, west of the city of Nablus in the West Bank. This follows Israeli government approval for the expansion of Jewish settlements and the creation of new settlement units on West Bank lands.

• Israel's far-right Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich announced plans to encourage Palestinian “emigration” from Gaza and the West Bank.
• Israel has approved new measures to tighten control over the occupied West Bank, including allowing Jewish Israelis to directly buy land there for the first time.
• These moves have drawn widespread international condemnation, with 85 UN member states calling the actions contrary to international law.

A senior far-right Israeli minister vowed to encourage “emigration” from the Palestinian territories, despite growing criticism of recent measures to tighten Israel's control over the occupied West Bank.

Since last week, Israel has approved a series of initiatives backed by far-right ministers to tighten control over the West Bank, which also includes areas administered by the Palestinian Authority under the Oslo Accords since the 1990s.

“We will eliminate the idea of ​​an Arab terrorist state,” far-right Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich said late Tuesday at an event organized by his Religious Zionism party.

“We will finally, formally and practically, annul the damned Oslo Accords and move toward sovereignty while encouraging migration from both Gaza and Judea and Samaria,” he said, using the Biblical term for the West Bank.

“There is no other long-term solution,” said Smotrich, who himself lives in a West Bank settlement.

Israel's Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich.

Kobi Wolf/Bloomberg via Getty Images

Smotrich was speaking at a vineyard near Ramallah, the seat of the Palestinian Authority, where he presented “Colonials 2030,” a campaign initiative ahead of national elections later this year.

In addition to the finance portfolio, Smotrich also serves on Israel's Security Cabinet, which makes key decisions regarding the West Bank, making him a central figure in efforts to expand settlements there.

Recently approved measures include starting the process of registering land in the West Bank as “state property” and allowing Jewish Israelis to purchase land directly.

Until now, land acquisition for settlers was generally done through intermediary companies.

The new measures repeal a decades-old law that prevented Jews from directly purchasing land in the West Bank.

“This will allow Jews to buy land in Judea and Samaria exactly the same way they do in Tel Aviv or Jerusalem,” Smotrich said last week.

global outrage

Steps have also been taken to increase Israeli control over parts of the West Bank where the Palestinian Authority currently exercises power.

Under the Oslo Accords, the West Bank was divided into areas A, B and C, under Palestinian, mixed and Israeli rule respectively.

The West Bank would be the largest part of any future Palestinian state, but many on Israel's religious right see it as Israeli land.

The Oslo Accords were signed with the stated purpose of paving the way for an independent Palestinian state.

Read | Palestinians fear Israel West Bank land rule changes will set up annexation

Israeli NGOs have also raised concerns over a settlement plan signed by the government, which they say would mark the first expansion of Jerusalem's borders into the occupied West Bank since 1967.

The planned development, announced by Israel's Ministry of Construction and Housing, is a westward expansion of the Geva Binyamin or Adam settlement, formally located northeast of Jerusalem in the West Bank.

The new measures have sparked widespread international outrage.

On Tuesday, UN missions from 85 countries condemned the moves, which critics say amount to a de facto annexation of Palestinian territory.

He said in a statement:

“Such decisions are contrary to Israel’s obligations under international law and should be immediately reversed.

“We underline our strong opposition to any form of merger in this regard.”

'Growing alienation'

Rawi Fattouh, a top Palestinian official, said such widespread condemnation shows “a change in the international community's approach to its legal and moral responsibilities” with regard to Palestinian rights.

“It also represents further evidence of the growing isolation of the occupying entity, which insists on rejecting the international will,” the Palestinian National Council president said in a statement.

He accused Israel of continuing “policies of annexation, Judaization, ethnic cleansing, illegal colonization and imposing a systematic system of racial discrimination that amounts to the crime of apartheid”.

Read this also UN accuses Israel of West Bank 'apartheid'

US President Donald Trump has previously voiced opposition to the annexation of the West Bank, but has stopped short of directly criticizing the latest Israeli measures.

More than 500,000 Israelis live in settlements and outposts in the West Bank, excluding Israeli-occupied East Jerusalem, which are illegal under international law.

About three million Palestinians live in the region, which Israel has occupied since 1967.

The current Israeli government, considered one of the most right-wing in the country's history, has led rapid settlement expansion.

According to Israeli NGO Peace Now, it has approved a record 54 settlements in 2025.