Finance Minister Smotrich Releases AI-Driven Election Video Highlighting Arab Fears Over Jewish Settlement Expansion

Israeli Finance Minister and Religious Zionism party leader Bezalel Smotrich published a new election campaign video using artificial intelligence to depict a dramatic phone conversation between two Arab men, one from the West Bank and one from the Galilee. The video opens with a warning sign from Area A in the West Bank and then shifts to a directional sign to the city of Sakhnin in the Galilee, visually linking settlement policies in the West Bank with plans for the Negev and Galilee regions.

In the video, the two men speak in Arabic with increasing panic, expressing fear over Jewish settlement expansion, land seizures, and the establishment of new communities and agricultural farms. One man urgently calls his friend "Mohammed," warning that "the Jews are coming" and that Smotrich is bringing the same settlement initiatives from the West Bank to the Negev and Galilee. The conversation escalates to despair, with one man breaking down in tears, lamenting the loss of freedom to act without oversight.

The video concludes with official messages from the Religious Zionism party promising a "settlement revolution" in the Negev and Galilee as part of a detailed election platform. Smotrich accompanied the video release with a statement saying, "Ahmad has reason to fear," emphasizing that the settlement program that began in the West Bank is now expanding significantly into southern and northern Israel.

This provocative campaign video aims to highlight the party's commitment to expanding Jewish settlements beyond the West Bank, framing it as a key election issue ahead of the upcoming vote.