Israel's far-right finance minister has vowed to annex Israeli settlements in the occupied West Bank in 2025. Bezalel Smotrich, who is in charge of settlements, said he would push the Israeli government to work with the incoming Trump administration on the matter. FRANCE 24's Yinka Oyetade is joined by Lorenzo Kamel, Professor of History of International Relations at the University of Turin. He says indications suggest Trump will fully back the selective annexation of West Bank settlements.
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00:00Arab and Muslim leaders are demanding that Israel withdraw from occupied Palestinian
00:08territories as a precondition for regional peace.
00:11It comes after Israel's hardline finance minister said that with the backing of the
00:15next Trump administration, he hoped Israel could annex parts of the occupied West Bank
00:22as early as next year.
00:24While no formal government decision has been taken in recent years, Israel's footprint
00:29in the occupied West Bank has expanded dramatically.
00:32It's now home to some 500,000 Israeli settlers and three million Palestinians.
00:38Salina Sykes reports.
00:42His comments are another sign that the Israeli government could be preparing to annex parts
00:46of the occupied West Bank.
00:48On Monday, Israel's far-right finance minister, Beziel Smotrich, pledged to extend sovereignty
00:54to Israeli settlements in the Palestinian territory.
00:57Prompting fierce condemnation from Fatah, the political party of Palestinian President
01:01Mahmoud Abbas.
01:04This is definitely a recipe for yet another disaster that Israel is about to commit.
01:08International community is called upon to intervene now and never delay its intervention.
01:14Otherwise a bunch of lunatics sitting in Tel Aviv think that they can reroute the Palestinian
01:20people towards other destinations and design the fate of the Palestinians who have long
01:25existed on this land.
01:27The occupied West Bank is home to three million Palestinians and 500,000 Israeli settlers.
01:34The vast majority of the international community considers the settlements they live in illegal
01:38under international law.
01:40The annexation would be a major and highly controversial act.
01:44France's Minister for Europe and Foreign Affairs reiterated the French government's position
01:48on the matter in an interview on France 24 on Tuesday.
01:54What is clear is that we denounce the policy that this Israeli minister encourages, which
02:00is illegal under international law, namely the aggressive colonization of the West Bank.
02:11Despite the stance of most of the international community, Smotrich hopes to soon have the
02:15support of the United States, following the victory of Donald Trump in the US election.
02:21During his first term, Trump reversed a long-standing White House position that Israeli settlements
02:26in the occupied West Bank were illegal, and also moved the US embassy to Jerusalem.
02:33Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has also appointed a new US ambassador, who
02:38is a staunch defender of Israeli settlements in the occupied West Bank.
02:42Well, let's delve deeper and bring in Lorenzo Kamel, who is Professor of History of International
02:49Relations at the University of Turin and the author of The Middle East, From Empires
02:54to Sealed Identities.
02:55Thanks so much for joining us on the programme, Lorenzo, really appreciate having you on.
03:00Now, Smotrich said on Monday that he's extracted his department to prepare, quote, the necessary
03:06infrastructure for applying sovereignty in the occupied West Bank.
03:10Lay out for us what that would look like.
03:14It will happen something similar to what happened to East Jerusalem.
03:18Back in 1980, Israel provoked strong international criticism when it annexed East Jerusalem and
03:25other territories conquered after the so-called Six Days War of 1967.
03:31That served as an historical precedence and a template for further extension of Israeli
03:36sovereignty in the West Bank.
03:38And beside the facade of strong criticisms, nothing happened.
03:43We heard before the French official, Italians are doing pretty much the same, but Western
03:48countries have signed many commercial agreements that continue to provide weapons.
03:52So the bottom line for East Jerusalem was that it's still legally occupied.
03:57Only five out of 194 UN member states have their embassies in Jerusalem.
04:04Still, there are no consequences for this and the same will apply for the selective
04:08annexation to which you're referring to.
04:10What is this selective annexation?
04:12In practical terms, it means to take just some part of the West Bank in line with what
04:18was the previous prime minister, Naftali Bennett, that mentioned this selective annexation clearly,
04:26in clear terms.
04:27So to take just what is necessary for also, not only for natural resources, but also for
04:33water, but also what they consider useful for security and so on.
04:36And they will leave some little autonomy on steroids.
04:40So this was the official expression used at the time by Naftali Bennett.
04:43And this one, once again, it will, what will happen now?
04:46Yeah.
04:47So it kind of seems that the plans being put forward by the finance minister isn't really
04:51something new.
04:52It's something that they've been trying to do for a very long time now.
04:55So clearly Smockridge is trying to seize on Trump's victory in the US election last week.
05:01We've seen how much Trump has supported Israel during his first term in office in the US.
05:07Do you see the president-elect really backing the annexation of the West Bank?
05:11And how crucial will his support be?
05:15Judging from the fact that he received $100 million from Miriam Adelson, that is the wife
05:22of the late billionaire Sheldon Adelson.
05:25And this came with a string to appoint officials like, for instance, D'Ambasso, that you were
05:31mentioning before, that would fully back for the selective annexation to which you are
05:35referring to.
05:36Most likely, Mark Rubio will be the Secretary of State.
05:40This is not official yet.
05:42But most likely, this is what all the rumors point to.
05:46And so it means that there is a strong push in that direction that comes, once again,
05:53together with the strings to which we're referring to.
05:55So certainly, the line is there.
05:58And unless there is a strong push on the other direction, for instance, by Europe, although
06:04of course we are looking at the situation also in Ukraine and so on, this seems pretty
06:09much alike.
06:11So unless this happen, red light will arrive from the US part.
06:18And we've had some reaction to Smoczowicz's comments.
06:21The Palestinian Islamic Jihad has said that, I'll just read this out, they said that the
06:27comments from Smoczowicz is a tantamount to an admission of open war waged by the criminal
06:32entity against the Palestinian people.
06:35That's a very strong comment.
06:38How much of an escalation would something like annexing the West Bank be to the war
06:43in Gaza, for example, and the war in the wider region?
06:47Once again, also in this case, nothing new in the sense Smoczowicz already three years
06:53ago was clearly pointing out the necessity to flatten the Gaza Strip.
06:57This is precisely the expression that he used.
07:00More recently, he called for the voluntary immigration, the expulsion of the Palestinian
07:04from the Gaza Strip to other countries.
07:07And both him and the Minister of National Security, Itamar Ben-Gavir, that was convicted
07:11by an Israeli tribunal back in 2007 for supporting a terror organization, have called for the
07:18annexation of the West Bank.
07:19So once again, all this is not new.
07:22It's just a bit more visible today, somehow coming after this tragic year.
07:28And certainly also, of course, you were referring to the strong claims and so on.
07:34Certainly, we need to stress that extremism strengthens one with the other.
07:38Certainly also the Palestinian side with this group in a number of ways certainly did not
07:44serve the Palestinian cause.
07:46So once again, to take into account that the extremists of both sides, like in many other
07:51contexts, somehow are useful one with the other one.
07:55And the West Bank has already been a hotbed of tension.
07:57We've seen it throughout the war in Gaza.
08:00We've had at least 700 Palestinians killed in the occupied West Bank since the war in
08:04Gaza began.
08:05Describe for us what life is like already for Palestinians in the occupied West Bank
08:10at the moment.
08:11Thank you to your question, it comes to my mind two examples.
08:15First I remember on February 26th of 2023, so last year, I remember Aretz, the Israeli
08:24daily newspaper, was titling about the pogrom of Uara, this Palestinian village that was
08:29attacked by settlers.
08:30And once again, Aretz was using this expression, pogrom, he used precisely this word.
08:35And then the second thing that comes to my mind is when the UNICEF on September 18, 2023,
08:42so once again, last year, was providing a report in which it was documented that the
08:50first nine months of 2023 were those with the highest number of Palestinian children
08:56killed in the occupied West Bank.
08:59So once again, these two examples, among many others, are there to remind, of course, that
09:04structural violence was very visible.
09:07And the so-called temporary occupation of the Palestinian territory, which lasts since
09:11over 57 years, structural violence there was very visible.
09:17Today, as I was mentioning, is perhaps a bit more explicit due to all the tragedy that
09:27occurred after October 7, the terror attacks of Hamas and the killing of over 40,000 persons.
09:36And we've seen a huge amount of them, children and women.
09:40So once again, this is more visible, but still to think that this started, or in any case,
09:46was somehow unprecedented, like some people tend to do, is extremely simplistic.
09:50Yeah, it seems to have been going on for a long time now.
09:54Lorenzo, let's talk about the international community and how effective international law
09:58would be in a situation like this.
10:01We've had leaders from the Arab-Islamic summits calling on the UN Security Council and the
10:06international community to take action against Smock Ritz plans.
10:11How effective is international law here?
10:14Can it put an end to these kind of plans?
10:18Yeah, let's first stress that the establishment of civilian settlements in the occupied territory
10:24was widely accepted as a war crime well before the so-called Rome Statute in 2002 and its
10:31provisions.
10:32So the Rome Statute was clearly pointing out that there is a prohibition to transfer part
10:40of your own civilian population.
10:44Occupied power cannot transfer part of its own civilian population on occupied territory.
10:49And in the sense that even if you provide huge, massive incentives, for instance, free
10:55education, free housing, and so on, this is part, of course, of these incentives.
11:00On top of the Geneva Convention and also the United Nations Security Council resolution
11:06of 476, that was a resolution of the Security Council that without any precondition was
11:14clearly stating that acquisition of territory by force is inadmissible.
11:18So in the sense that these are the backbone of international law, Rome Statute, the Four
11:23Geneva Convention, the UN Security Council.
11:26So they go all in a certain direction.
11:29So it's clear to anyone that is informed and knows also the historical background, because
11:35unfortunately, I say this with a slight criticism of legal scholars, often they miss the historical
11:40background that prevent to have really a thorough understanding of this.
11:45So taking together these two, historical and legal elements, we see that should be a strong
11:52and clear line that comes with sanction to any actor, be Palestinian, be Israeli, that
11:59runs against international consensus and against these legal pillars to which I was referring
12:06to.
12:07Until that won't happen, we will continue to see this facade, criticism here and there,
12:12but somehow the message that will be received by these authorities would be, okay, you can
12:18continue as you wish.
12:19If you just let me add one little example coming from my country, Italy, if you think
12:24like in the case of Egypt with Assisi, in Italy we discuss much about Regeni and so
12:30on.
12:31There were many call by the Italian authorities about Regeni and so on to provide answer.
12:38But then in practical terms, our country was the main providers of weapons to the Assisi
12:43regime, was having a huge role with any taking out fuel from Egypt.
12:48So the line somehow, the message that we are giving to Assisi is that you can continue
12:52with that because the structural interests are there.
12:55So Mutare is Mutana, the situation is similar here.
12:57The message can be, we can have some criticism, but in practical terms, the green light is
13:02there.
13:03Very much a mixed message.
13:04Lorenzo, thank you so much for giving us your thoughts there and your analysis.
13:08We really appreciate having you on the programme.
13:10That's Lorenzo Cama, who is Professor of History of International Relations at the University
13:14of Turin.
13:15Well, let's leave it there for now.