Bezalel Smotrich is a child of Israeli settlements in the West Bank. Son of a rabbi, this 43-year-old man, rather elegant and discreet, grew up in a Talmudic school in a religious colony near Ramallah, where he developed his learning of the Torah… and a visceral hatred of the Palestinians.
In a text published in 2017, this lawyer-turned-MP details over more than 20 pages his “decisive plan for Israel” : bury all hope of a Palestinian state, completely annex the West Bank, prohibit citizenship and the right to vote to the Palestinians who remain there, encourage as many of them as possible to exile… In summary, let only the Israelis have the right to populate the two regions at the heart of what the Jewish people consider their historic homeland: Judea to the south of Jerusalem, Samaria to the north.
Their objective: “as few Palestinians as possible in Gaza and the West Bank”
Six years after the publication of this pamphlet, Bezalel Smotrich found himself at the head of the Israeli Ministry of Finance, with a special right of oversight over military activities in the West Bank. With its 10% in the legislative elections, his supremacist party formed an alliance with Benjamin Netanyahu in December 2022, obtaining numerous key positions. With a program that sends shivers down your spine. “Their objective has always been constant: they want as few Palestinians as possible in Gaza and the West Bank, or at least deprive them of all political power,” summarizes Paul Scham, specialist on Israel and professor at the University of Maryland.
Today, the ideologue is taking advantage of the confusion born from the Hamas attacks on October 7 and the war in the Gaza Strip to advance his plan in the West Bank. For a month, these territories have experienced an outbreak of violence between soldiers, settlers and Palestinians, raising fears of the emergence of a new front for the Israeli army, already mobilized against Hamas in the south and threatened by Lebanese Hezbollah in the north.
However, these clashes owe nothing to chance. “Since October 7, Bezalel Smotrich has remained silent in public, but behind the scenes he is extremely active in transforming his vision of the West Bank into reality,” says Michael Koplow, research director at the Israel Policy Forum in New York. to ban the olive harvest in the West Bank, in order to push the Palestinians to leave their lands and make annexation easier. He and his allies are focusing on this territory, their historical priority, and taking advantage of the fact that Israel is focused on the fighting in Gaza.”
In implementing his plan for the West Bank, Bezalel Smotrich can count on strong allies within the Israeli government. The Minister of Heritage, for example, the obscure Amichay Eliyahu, who declared in early November that sending a nuclear bomb to Gaza “was an option.” A welcome inflammatory statement to divert attention… Or even on the very influential Minister of National Security, Itamar Ben-Gvir. His personal obsession: arming as many Jewish citizens as possible to defend themselves against Palestinians and Arabs supposedly favorable to Hamas. “Since the attack on October 7, Ben-Gvir has been handing out permits to carry weapons all over the place,” continues Michael Koplow. “He also forms what he calls ‘community defense teams’: he brings together civilians, their provides firearms, then asks them to organize their own defensive groups to protect themselves from their neighbors. He does this both in Israel, in neighborhoods near Arab-majority cities, but also in West Bank settlements. ” For his (many) detractors, the Minister of National Security is thus creating a veritable network of private militias, with immense risks of slippage.
The territorial ambitions of the far right do not stop at the West Bank. For this political fringe, the mere presence of Palestinians can be assimilated to an existential threat to the Jewish state. “Religious nationalist parties say that Israel must resettle in Gaza, not only with its military forces but also with its settlements,” emphasizes Liran Harsgor, a political scientist at the University of Haifa. According to them, the settlements contribute to security of Israel by creating buffer zones. They believe that as soon as Israel evacuates its colonies, like in the Gaza Strip, terror sets in.” Several settlers are already volunteering to return to occupy territories near Gaza, from where 7,500 Israelis were displaced in 2005 as part of the military withdrawal decided by Ariel Sharon.
After October 7, a risk of spreading their ideology?
The fact remains that, for the most part, Israelis continue to be opposed to the colonization of Palestinian territories. Until now, however, they preferred to ignore it, turning their eyes away from this illegal process under international law. How will their ideas evolve, in the fog of war and Hamas massacres? “The effects of October 7 on the Israeli population and their state of mind will be felt in the very long term, estimates political scientist Liran Harsgor. In the short term, we are already seeing the rise of strong anti-Arab sentiment, which the extreme “The right is trying to exploit them to gain power. On the other hand, this political camp is part of the government that has failed to protect them and is falling to an all-time low in the polls.”
According to an overwhelming majority of analysts, this government will not resist the security fiasco of October 7. For the moment, only the obstinacy of Benjamin Netanyahu in remaining in power is preserving these ministers, especially as the American administration is increasingly raising its voice against this extremist fringe and the acceleration of colonization in the West Bank. “Netanyahu, whose only goal is to escape prison [NDLR : le Premier ministre est poursuivi dans plusieurs affaires de corruption], has been trapped by the far right since the formation of his government, points out Paul Scham. These ministers constitute a huge burden on Israel. We are witnessing a humanitarian disaster in Gaza, with thousands of Palestinians killed in one month, and ministers are allowing themselves to make completely crazy declarations… Some will believe that this is the official position of the Israeli government, which is not the case, and this shows a power in complete disarray.”
Smotrich, Ben-Gvir and other Eliyahu should be able to count on a reprieve of several months, until the end of the war. Time for them to create even more damage, and to advance their “final plan” for Israel a little further.
.