The head of the “Religious Zionism” party and Minister of Finance in the occupation government, Bezalel Smotrich, is not content with adopting the “decisive theory” that he formulated in 2017 and sponsoring its implementation by the ruling coalition, but today, Thursday, he announced his plan to deepen the Judaization of the Galilee and the Negev within the 1948 territories.
The finance minister did not disclose the total expected cost of implementing the plan, which includes large-scale settlement and housing projects in the Negev and Galilee.
Smotrich presented a new plan entitled “Yes, we Judaize,” which, according to his statements, aims to strengthen the Jewish presence in the two regions by establishing dozens of new towns and farms, in addition to expanding existing towns.
Smotrich chose to speak openly about the Judaization plan, without hiding behind euphemisms like “developing the Negev and Galilee.” He spoke of a project whose central goal is to add approximately one million Jews to the population of the two regions by establishing 40 new towns and dozens of farms, along with a significant expansion of existing towns and the provision of hundreds of thousands of housing units and solutions. As part of implementing the plan, Smotrich seeks to have his party assume control of key planning institutions, including the Planning Administration and the Israel Land Authority.
“We will go beyond procedures and people in order to allow the establishment of farms,” Smotrich said in media statements on Thursday, adding that he would work to remove what he called “anti-Zionist and post-Zionist elements” from these institutions, and replace them with people who “understand the challenge of Judaizing the Negev and the Galilee.”
Smotrich, whose party is struggling to remain in the political arena according to opinion polls, is waging a battle to pass the plan through legislation, saying: “I will not beg the staff or the legal advisors.”
It should be noted that the Galilee region is inhabited by a Palestinian majority, as they constitute more than 52% of the population, while the Negev is witnessing a significant increase in their numbers due to natural increase, as their number has risen since the Nakba from about 12,000 people to more than 320,000 today.
This plan coincides with a plan to build 1,200 settlement housing units in the area between occupied Jerusalem and the Ma'ale Adumim settlement, known as the "E1" area, which is seen as aiming to fragment the occupied West Bank and prevent the establishment of a geographically contiguous Palestinian state.
The plan sparked a wave of Arab, Islamic, and European condemnation. Its origins date back to the 1990s, before it was frozen and then revived in stages, taking advantage of the absence of effective international sanctions against the occupying power despite its repeated violations and crimes.
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