Journalist Amira Hass cautions that Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich’s sweeping sovereignty plan over Judea and Samaria is no bluff—82% annexation, Palestinian enclaves, and the burial of the two-state vision.
Haaretz journalist Amira Hass sounded the alarm over Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich’s newly revealed “sovereignty plan”, describing it as nothing less than a blueprint for de facto annexation of the West Bank.
Hass wrote that Smotrich’s track record proves his determination: from battling the disengagement, to founding the right-wing NGO Regavim, to becoming the first minister to openly state after October 7 that hostage release was not Israel’s top priority. “Over roughly twenty years of political activity, Smotrich has proven himself goal-oriented and highly capable of implementing his intentions,” Hass warned.
The plan, presented this week alongside settlement leaders, calls for official Israeli sovereignty over 82% of Judea and Samaria, including large swaths of land currently defined as Area B under the Oslo Accords. According to Smotrich’s sovereignty maps, six Palestinian cities—Hebron, Ramallah, Jericho, Nablus, Tulkarm, and Jenin—would remain as isolated enclaves, separated from one another and permitted limited self-governance.
Smotrich defended the move as the only way to ensure a “distinct Jewish majority in a Jewish-democratic State of Israel.” The underlying principle, as Hass summarized, is “maximum land, minimum Arabs.”
If enacted, the plan would mark the formal death of the Palestinian state vision and the nullification of the Oslo framework.
Hass concluded: “This is not a campaign gimmick. It is a deliberate, carefully drafted plan. It must be taken with full seriousness.”
