Smotrich: Israel will ‘erase the Palestinian state,’ rebuild long-gone West Bank settlements

Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich, who is also a minister within the Defense Ministry, says he is working to reestablish the former Israeli settlements of Ganim and Kadim in the northern West Bank, both of which were evacuated and dismantled as part of the 2005 disengagement.

The far-right minister tells the Religious Zionism party’s Ofek newspaper that he hopes to see this plan come to fruition “in the coming weeks,” to coincide with the 20th anniversary of the withdrawal from Gaza and from four West Bank settlements.

“The people of Israel are correcting the sin of Gaza,” he says, referring to the push among settler activists to reestablish the Gush Katif settlement bloc, “and I hope we will also be able to fully correct the sin of northern Samaria.”

Earlier this year, Israel approved plans to rebuild the settlements of Sa-Nur and Homesh, which were dismantled along with Ganim and Kadim during the disengagement.

Smotrich tells his party’s newspaper that the plans for the West Bank are intended to “erase the Palestinian state,” and to prevent another event similar to the October 7, 2023, Hamas assault from occurring in the future.

“A large part of what we are doing today in Judea and Samaria is the product of insights from October 7,” he says, claiming that “an absolute majority” of Israelis know that the purpose of the West Bank settlements is to ensure “that Kfar Saba will not be Kfar Aza, Netanya will not be Be’eri, and Nitzanei Oz will not be Nahal Oz.”