Israeli Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich on Wednesday praised Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu over his reported support for farming outposts in Judea and Samaria.
Smotrich thanked the prime minister “for supporting the revolution we are carrying out in Judea and Samaria, among other things through the establishment of 132 outposts that protect 700,000 dunams [173,000 acres] from illegal Arab encroachment.”
“Together, we will kill the idea of a Palestinian state and ensure that Jews will be able to live and move about in safety everywhere,” he concluded.
Netanyahu has led an unprecedented drive to expand control of Judea and Samaria, approving some 50,000 housing units and over 50 new Jewish communities since late 2022.
Smotrich was responding to a Ynet report revealing the summary of a recent Cabinet discussion, according to which Netanyahu expressed support for legalizing Jewish farms in Judea and Samaria as part of what he described as “a positive response to Palestinian activity in the area.”
While many of the farming outposts in Judea and Samaria are built without permission, Ynet noted, their pastures are often legal and officially allocated to them by the Israeli Defense Ministry’s Civil Administration, which Smotrich oversees.
According to sources present at the Cabinet meeting, which was said to have been held around two weeks ago, Netanyahu instructed officials to accelerate the process of formally recognizing the farms in their entirety.
The document obtained by Ynet was prepared by the National Security Council in the Prime Minister’s Office. Under the subheading “prime minister’s summary,” it states: “Approved and supervised farms are a positive, necessary response for preserving Area C and constitute a response to Palestinian activity in the area.”
The meeting was reportedly called in the wake of the Nov. 17 riots targeting Palestinians in Judea, which Netanyahu condemned as an “attempt to take the law into their own hands by a small, extremist group that does not represent the residents of Judea and Samaria.”
Netanyahu vowed at the time to deal with the issue “personally,” and said he would convene the government “as soon as possible to address this serious phenomenon.” He also urged law enforcement authorities to apprehend and prosecute the rioters “to the fullest extent of the law.”
In the Cabinet meeting, the prime minister emphasized expanding educational programs to draw Israeli youths away from violence, noting that no body is currently coordinating social and educational interventions, according to Ynet.
“The goal we must strive for is employing educational tools to remove as many Jewish youths as possible from the cycle of violence in Judea and Samaria, with emphasis on the youth forming the activity’s outer circle (300 youths),” according to the summary.
The Israel Defense Forces recorded 663 instances of violence by Jews against Palestinians in Judea and Samaria last year, a 34% decrease compared to 2023, when 1,005 incidents were recorded by the IDF.
Meanwhile, Jerusalem recorded thousands of Palestinian terrorist attacks against Jews in 2024, including many in Judea and Samaria.
Palestinian terrorists targeted Israeli Jews in Judea and Samaria at least 6,343 times last year, according to figures published by the Rescuers Without Borders (Hatzalah Judea and Samaria) NGO on Feb. 17.
