Smotrich’s Plan to Settle One Million Jews Sparks Arab World Outrage

Israeli Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich announced a plan to settle one million Jews and establish 40 new communities in the Negev and Galilee regions. This initiative has provoked intense criticism and accusations of ethnic cleansing from Arab activists and political parties within Israel and across the Arab world. They warn the plan aims to alter the demographic and geographic balance in these areas and urge the Arab public to mobilize in upcoming elections to oppose it.

Leaders such as Hadash party chairman Yousef Jabareen condemned the plan as apartheid, comparing it to a racist and anti-Semitic policy if proposed in Europe. Yosef Ibrahim of the Abnaa al-Balad movement called for deeper understanding of Israeli policies and emphasized the importance of Arab voter participation to counter the settlement and Judaization projects. Political activist and writer Nivin Abu Rahmon described the plan as part of a broader settlement project designed to reshape the demographic reality in the Negev and Galilee, warning against dismissing it as mere election propaganda.

The controversy extended to Arab media outside Israel, with Saudi channel Al-Hadath labeling the plan as escalating election messaging. Reports highlighted Smotrich’s intention to legislate changes in institutions by removing anti-Zionist elements and installing supporters of Judaizing the Negev and Galilee. Arab, Islamic, and European arenas also condemned the plan, tracing its origins to the 1990s and noting its phased advancement.

Hadash’s newspaper Al-Ittihad published a scathing editorial accusing Smotrich of waging a new war against Palestinian citizens in the Galilee and Negev, likening the plan to transplanting West Bank settlement models into Israel’s Arab population centers. The editorial described the initiative as a comprehensive ethnic cleansing project targeting Arab citizens and called on the Arab public to vote decisively in the upcoming elections to defeat the government promoting these policies.