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In a lengthy social media post on Saturday night, Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich urged supporters of West Bank annexation to adopt the tactics of the movement to free the hostages in Gaza, including weekly rallies and an assertive, organized awareness campaign.
The post by Smotrich — a far-right proponent of applying Israeli sovereignty to the West Bank — was an attempt to chart a path forward following US President Donald Trump’s repeated vows this month that Israel would not annex the territory. The statements by Trump, who said Israel would lose US support if it proceeded with annexation, were a major setback to those who support the move.
In response, Smotrich wrote that proponents of applying Israeli sovereignty should look to the relatives of Israeli hostages for inspiration. Trump has spoken frequently of releasing the hostages, and bringing all the captives home from Gaza is a foundational piece of the ceasefire deal that took effect two weeks ago. The deal has seen all 20 living hostages released, in addition to 15 deceased captives.
Smotrich attributed that centrality to the massive activist campaign on the hostages’ behalf.
“The Hostage Families Forum, and the prime minister who enlisted to help them, did not falter and explained to the president and his people over and over again how important returning the hostages was to the Israeli public, and how much siding with Israel meant bringing the hostages back, even more so than defeating Hamas,” Smotrich wrote.
“And they succeeded,” he continued. “The president understood the importance of the issue, changed his mind and his policy, and the ending is known.”
Inspired by that success, Smotrich laid out a playbook for a coordinated, proactive pro-annexation activist movement — modeled explicitly on the large rallies for the hostages that swept across Israel following the Hamas-led October 7, 2023, attack and which still draw thousands more than two years later.
“Just like the Hostages Forum, don’t be deterred by criticism or weakened by temporary failures,” he wrote. “In the end it succeeds.”
He added, “Does anyone doubt that if, for a whole year, the many supporters of sovereignty go out every Saturday night to ‘Sovereignty Square’ for a huge rally, put on specialized pins, [and] put signs on the country’s roads and bridges… sovereignty will happen? I have no doubt about it, God willing.”
Throughout the post, Smotrich, who opposed the current ceasefire deal, writes that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was acting in concert with the campaign to release the hostages. In fact, while Netanyahu said freeing the captives was a core goal of the war, many relatives of hostages were critical of him for what they saw as an insufficient effort to free their loved ones. Several pointedly declined to thank him once the surviving hostages were released.
Smotrich also suggested that, just as the hostage rallies had an impact on Trump, annexation may ride on changing the US president’s mind.
“Why would something be permitted to them and not to the right and the settlers?!” he wrote, adding that “there’s nothing more natural” than demanding “Israeli sovereignty in the swaths of our homeland in Judea and Samaria, and eliminating the dangerous idea of a Palestinian state.”
Trump, he added, who is a “true friend of Israel who really wants the best for it,” will “change his mind when he understands how important and existential this is for us… and how determined we are not to give up on it — at least as determined as the Hostage Families Forum and their supporters.”
Smotrich pointed to a non-binding resolution in favor of annexation this year that passed 71-13 in the Knesset. He also claimed that polls show clear support for annexation among the Israeli public. While polling on the question, in fact, appears inconclusive, Smotrich did address one common objection to annexation in an addendum to the post: that it would endanger Israel’s efforts to normalize relations with its neighbors.
Arab states have voiced adamant opposition to Israel applying sovereignty to the West Bank, and earlier this year, a UAE official called annexation a “red line” that would doom Israel’s regional integration efforts. Saudi Arabia, with which Israel hopes to establish ties, has likewise called for a Palestinian state, which annexation would preclude.
Smotrich seemed to say that obstacle could be overcome, though he did not say how.
“We’ll continue, God willing, to strive toward establishing our sovereignty in all parts of our land, and toward advancing agreements and true peace accords with our neighbors, from a position of strength and national respect, without, God forbid, betraying our values, our roots, our heritage, our history and our unequivocal right to our land.”
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