Far-right Israeli Minister of Finance Bezalel Smotrich has drawn criticism for calling for Israel to expand its borders to Damascus in a recent documentary.
In an interview for the documentary, In Israel: Ministers of Chaos, produced by European public service channel, Arte, Smotrich claimed that Israel would expand “little by little” and eventually encompass all Palestinian territories as well as Jordan, Lebanon, Egypt, Syria, Iraq, and Saudi Arabia.
“It is written that the future of Jerusalem is to expand to Damascus,” he said, citing the “greater Israel” ideology, which envisions the expansion of the state across the Middle East.
Jordan’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs condemned the incendiary remarks saying that they highlighted Smotrich’s dangerous and “racist” ideology.
Smotrich previously cited the concept at a memorial service for a Likud activist in Paris. When speaking from a podium decorated with a map of Israel that included Jordan, he claimed that there was “no such thing” as the Palestinian people.
The French foreign ministry subsequently announced that government representatives in Paris did not intend to meet with Smotrich during his visit to the country.
Aside from being the finance minister, Smotrich now holds significant powers over the occupied West Bank.
In August, Smotrich expressed support for blocking aid to Gaza, saying that: “Nobody will let us cause two million civilians to die of hunger even though it might be justified and moral until our hostages are returned.”
At the end of February, the minister said that the state of Israel should “wipe out” the Palestinian village of Huwwara, after it was subjected to a violent rampage by Israeli settlers.
