Smotrich, leader of the far-right Religious Zionism party, made the remarks at a press conference alongside West Bank settlement leaders.
He warned the Palestinian Authority, saying: "If the Palestinian Authority dares to raise its head and threaten us, we will destroy it, just as we do with Hamas" in the Gaza Strip.
"We don't want to govern the lives of our enemies," Smotrich said. "Sovereignty will be applied to 82% of the territory" in the West Bank. He continued, "The Arabs of Samaria (Palestinians) will govern their lives through the Palestinian Authority, and later we will work to establish a different leadership." He added, "They will continue to govern their lives, and the land will be ours."
Smotrich added, "We do not want to apply our sovereignty over a people who seek to destroy us," he said. He continued, "The basic principle for applying sovereignty is the maximum area of land over the least number of Arabs."
He added, "We will maintain a clear Jewish majority, and Israel is Jewish. We have worked towards this, and sovereignty will be applied to 82% of the land."
Smotrich said, "It is time to apply Israeli sovereignty (annexation) over Judea and Samaria (the biblical name for the West Bank), and end the division of this small land."
He added, "The political role of sovereignty is to ensure that an Arab state does not emerge. The establishment of a Palestinian state must be prevented." Smotrich called on Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to expedite the annexation decision.
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Addressing Netanyahu, he said, "Convene the government and make a historic decision to impose sovereignty over all open areas in Judea and Samaria."
There are expectations that Israel will make the decision to annex if Western countries, including France, Britain, Australia, Canada, and Belgium, fulfill their pledges to recognize the State of Palestine during the United Nations meetings this month.
In preparation for its annexation, Israel has intensified its crimes in the West Bank since launching its war of extermination on the Gaza Strip on October 7, 2023, including the demolition of homes, the displacement of Palestinians, the confiscation of their lands, and the expansion and acceleration of settlement construction.
Israel's annexation of the occupied West Bank would eliminate the possibility of establishing an independent Palestinian state, in implementation of the principle of a two-state solution (Palestinian and Israeli), as stipulated in United Nations resolutions.
With American support, Israel has been committing genocide in Gaza since October 7, 2023, including killing, starvation, destruction, and forced displacement, ignoring all international calls and orders from the International Court of Justice to halt it.
This genocide left 63,633 Palestinians martyred, 160,914 wounded, most of them children and women, more than 9,000 missing, hundreds of thousands displaced, and a famine that killed 367 Palestinians, including 131 children.
For decades, Israel has occupied Palestine and territories in Syria and Lebanon, and refuses to withdraw from these areas and establish an independent Palestinian state with East Jerusalem as its capital, along the pre-1967 borders.
