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Israeli settlers set sights on Trump support for full control of West Bank

After a record expansion of Israeli settlement activity, some settler advocates in the occupied West Bank are looking to Donald Trump to fulfil a dream of imposing sovereignty over the area seen by Palestinians as the heart of a future state. The West Bank has been transformed by the rapid growth of Jewish settlements since Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu returned at the head of a far-right nationalist coalition two years ago. During that time, an explosion in settler violence that has led to US sanctions.

In recent weeks, Israeli flags have sprouted on hilltops claimed by some settlers in the West Bank’s Jordan Valley, adding to worries among many local Palestinians of greater control of those areas. Some settlers prayed for Trump’s victory before the election.

“We have high hopes. We’re even buoyant to a certain extent,” said Yisrael Medad, an activist and writer who supports Israel absorbing the West Bank, speaking to Reuters about Trump’s victory in the house he has lived in for more than four decades in the West Bank settlement of Shilo. Settlers have celebrated Trump’s nomination of a clutch of officials known for pro-Israel views, among them ambassador Mike Huckabee, an evangelical Christian who has said the West Bank is not under occupation and prefers the term “communities” to “settlements.” And over the past month, Israeli government ministers and settler advocates who have cultivated ties with the US Christian right have increasingly pushed the once fringe idea of “restoring sovereignty” over the West Bank in public comments. The Netanyahu government has not announced any official decision on the matter. A spokesperson at Netanyahu’s office declined to comment for this story. It is by no means certain Trump will give backing to a move that puts at risk Washington’s strategic ambition of a wider deal under the Abraham Accords to normalize Israel’s ties with Saudi Arabia, which, like most countries in the world, rejects Israeli sovereignty in the West Bank.

“Trump’s desire for expansion of the Abraham Accords will be a top priority,” Dennis Ross, a former Middle East negotiator for Democratic and Republican administrations said, based on his own assessment of Trump’s foreign policy considerations.

“There’s no way the Saudis will think seriously about joining if Israel formally absorbs the West Bank,” he said. Annexation would bury any hope of a two-state solution that creates an independent Palestine and also complicate efforts to resolve more than a year of war in Gaza that has spilled over into neighbouring Lebanon. In his first term, Trump moved the US embassy in Israel to Jerusalem and ended Washington’s long-held position that the settlements are illegal. But, in 2020, his plan to create a rump of a Palestinian state along existing boundaries derailed efforts by Netanyahu for Israeli sovereignty over the area.

The president-elect has not revealed his plans for the region. Trump transition spokeswoman Karoline Leavitt did not answer questions about policy, saying only that he would “restore peace through strength around the world.” Nonetheless, Israeli Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich, one of the most prominent pro-settler ministers in the government, said last week he hoped Israel could absorb the West Bank as early as next year with the support of the Trump administration.

Israel Ganz, the head of the Yesha Council, an umbrella group of West Bank Jewish municipalities, said in an interview that he hoped the Trump administration would “let” Israel’s government move ahead.

Ganz led a prayer session for a Trump victory in the ruins of an old Byzantine basilica in Shilo before the Nov. 5 election.

Jonathan Saul, James Mackenzie, "Israeli settlers set sights on Trump support for full control of West Bank," Business recorder. 2024-11-24.
Keywords: Political science , West Bank , Jewish settlements , Trump victory , US sanctions , Sovereignty , Donald Trump , Benjamin Netanyahu , Yisrael Medad , Israel , Palestine , US , UN

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