Far-right Israeli ministers push Netanyahu to reject Palestinian state

Two of Israel’s most hardline ministers are pressuring Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to formally reject any prospect of a Palestinian state, doubling down on an openly annexationist agenda that has long fuelled Israel’s occupation.

Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich, who lives in an illegal settlement in the occupied West Bank, posted a message on X demanding Netanyahu clarify his stance. “Formulate immediately an appropriate and decisive response that will make clear to the entire world: a Palestinian state will never arise on the lands of our homeland,” he wrote.

National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir echoed the call, warning that his Jewish Power party would abandon the coalition if the government recognised a Palestinian state. Ben-Gvir instead pushed for “encouraging voluntary emigration” of Palestinians from Gaza, a phrase critics say is a thinly veiled endorsement of ethnic cleansing.