One Million Jews and 50 Settlements: Smotrich’s Plan to Judaize the Negev and Galilee

Israel’s far-right Finance Minister announced on Thursday a plan by his party to increase the number of Jewish residents in two regions with large populations of Arab citizens of Israel.

As elections approach, Bezalel Smotrich said the plan would emulate what he described as the “revolution” in the occupied West Bank, where the construction of Israeli settlements has accelerated significantly in recent years.

Writing on the X platform and using the biblical name for the West Bank, he said: “Today I present to you the Religious Zionism party’s plan to Judaize the Negev and the Galilee: the revolution we carried out in Judea and Samaria, we will carry out in the Negev and the Galilee, and on a much larger scale.”

His party posted an AI-generated video on the X platform showing two Arab men shouting and crying in response to the proposed plan.

The Negev, located in southern Israel, and the Galilee, in northern Israel, are two regions with large populations of Arab citizens of Israel.

Most of Israel’s Arab minority identifies as Palestinian, either because they remained in Israel or because they are descendants of those who remained there after the establishment of the State of Israel in 1948. They account for approximately 21% of the country’s population of 10.2 million.

Smotrich said the objective was “to add one million Jews to the Negev and the Galilee, establish 50 new settlements and dozens of farms, expand existing settlements, and provide hundreds of thousands of housing units.”

He added: “We will cancel the reckless plans concerning Arab communities, which have taken over land designated for settlements and threaten Jewish settlement in the region.”

Smotrich also pledged to establish industrial zones and employment centers, saying that his government would call on the next government “to remove barriers and appoint Zionist professionals to key positions.”

Israel is preparing for a decisive election scheduled for October 27, in which Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu faces a difficult political battle.

According to current opinion polls, Smotrich’s party, which is part of Netanyahu’s coalition, is close to reaching the electoral threshold required to enter the next parliament.

Israel has occupied the West Bank since 1967, where approximately three million people live, in addition to more than 500,000 Israelis residing in settlements.