World

Two Israeli ministers urges West Bank annexation

By AAP Newswire

Sep 22, 2025

Israeli minister Itamar Ben-Gvir has urged the complete dismantling of the Palestinian Authority. -AP

Following the recognition of a Palestinian state by Canada, the United Kingdom and Australia, ultranationalist ministers in the Israeli cabinet have called for the immediate annexation of the West Bank.

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Minister of National Security Itamar Ben-Gvir also demanded the complete dismantling of the Palestinian Authority, which he referred to as a "terror authority" in a post on the X.

He announced plans to present a proposal at the next government meeting for the "extension of (Israeli) sovereignty," effectively referring to annexation, which would push the prospect of an independent Palestinian state even further away.

The Speaker of the Israeli parliament, Amir Ohana, also criticised the recognition, calling UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer a "modern appeaser who has chosen disgrace".

Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich also wrote on X that the times when the UK and other countries determined Israel's future are over.

The British Mandate was "over, and the only answer to this anti-Israeli step is to declare sovereignty over the ancestral territories of the Jewish people in Judea and Samaria and to remove the foolish idea of a Palestinian state from the agenda forever," he wrote, referring to how the West Bank is called in Israel.

Addressing Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, he wrote: "The time has come - it is in your hands."