Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich on Thursday called for expanding his settlement “revolution” from the West Bank to the Negev and Galilee, releasing a plan to “Judaize” the periphery at the expense of Arab residents in a pre-election pitch.

Despite his Religious Zionism party’s ongoing failure to crack the electoral threshold in the latest polls, the far-right faction declared that in the next government Smotrich will “demand” control over the Planning Administration and Israel Lands Authority in order to streamline building and reach his goal of “an additional million Jews in the Negev and Galilee through the establishment of 40 new settlements and dozens of farms” and the “significant expansion of existing settlements.”

Around 200,000 residents of the periphery were displaced following Hamas’s brutal massacre in the south on October 7, 2023, and subsequent missile attacks on the north by the Lebanon-based Hezbollah. While the majority of southern residents have returned home, many northern residents are reluctant to do the same.

Both regions suffered significant economic damage during the war.

In order to secure his proposed new communities, Smotrich on Thursday called for a broad initiative to “confiscate illegal weapons and target criminal organizations” — a reference to mounting crime in the Arab sector, which many critics blame on the current government.

At the same time, Smotrich’s plan calls for the cancellation of “the reckless plans........

© The Times of Israel