Smotrich: No concessions to Palestinians as part of Saudi normalization deal

Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich says that Israel will not make any concessions to the Palestinians as part of any normalization deal with Saudi Arabia.

“We will not make any concessions to the Palestinians, it’s a fiction,” Smotrich, who heads the far-right Religious Zionism party, tells Army Radio.

Smotrich says that while Israel is interested in the US-brokered deal with Riyadh, “it has nothing to do with Judea and Samaria,” he says, referring to the West Bank by its biblical names.

His comments come days after the US reportedly warned Israel that it will have to make far-reaching concessions to the Palestinians to secure a normalization agreement with Saudi Arabia.

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken told Strategic Affairs Minister Ron Dermer that Israel is “misreading the situation” if it does not believe significant gestures to the Palestinians are necessary to assuage the Saudis, who he said will need to demonstrate tangible results to other Arab and Muslim countries if they are to make a deal with Israel.