"The time has come for us to finally erase the lines that distinguish between Areas A, B, and C, the entire Land of Israel is ours," Smotrich said at the Religious Zionist Merkaz HaRav Yeshiva.
Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich called to annex the entirety of the West Bank during a speech at a Jerusalem Day rally on Thursday night. Smotrich was addressing students and faculty at the Merkaz HaRav Yeshiva in Jerusalem - a flagship institution of the Religious Zionist movement, established by the first Ashkenazi Chief Rabbi of British Mandatory Palestine, Abraham Isaac Kook, in the 1920s. Smotrich studied at the institution when he was younger.
"We have organized all the new young settlements, and approved more than a hundred new settlements in Judea and Samaria," Smotrich said. "In the last three years, we have approved 60,000 housing units in Judea and Samaria. The people of Israel are returning home, and this time forever!" he continued. "The time has come to finally erase the lines that separate Areas A, B, and C. I placed a detailed plan on the cabinet table this week, and I call on the prime minister to adopt it. All of the land of Israel is ours," he added.
Areas A, B, and C are categories for administrative divisions of the West Bank established under the Oslo Accords. "For two and a half years, we have been in the midst of a hard and long war - a war that also costs us heavily, but also with great achievements on all fronts," he said, naming several senior Iranian, Hezbollah, and Hamas leaders killed since the October 7 massacre. He also praised the passing of the controversial death penalty bill, saying that Nukhba force terrorists will "soon go to hell." (Read More)
