Smotrich Unveils Plan Ahead of Israel Elections

JERUSALEM: Far-right Israeli Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich on Thursday announced a plan to significantly increase the Jewish population in the Negev and Galilee, areas with large Arab-Israeli communities. With elections approaching, Smotrich said his Religious Zionism party intended to replicate what he described as a “revolution” in the occupied West Bank, where Israeli settlement construction has expanded sharply. He said the initiative would bring similar changes to the Negev and Galilee on a larger scale.