(JNS) Israeli Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich (Religious Zionism) declared on Monday that Judea, Samaria and the Jordan Valley are part of the Jewish state and “with God’s help, this can never be changed.”
Smotrich commented to JNS on figures showing that the Jewish population in the region grew in 2025 at twice the national rate.
The current 541,085 residents of Judea and Samaria are “not enough,” Smotrich told JNS. “We want the population to grow much more, throughout the entire State of Israel and in Judea and Samaria.”
Describing the often-disputed region as the security backbone of the entire country, Smotrich said Jerusalem would continue to expand its grip on Judea and Samaria, including through a construction boom.
“We are changing all the services the state provides there, because it is part of Israel, part of the State of Israel,” Smotrich added, “and with God’s help, this can never be changed.”
The Cabinet minister concluded, “This is the security of the entire State of Israel—and when it comes to our security, we do not compromise.”
The population in Judea and Samaria has grown by 13.8% since 2021, when 475,481 Jews lived in the region liberated during the 1967 Six-Day War, according to the report, which was first shared with JNS on Friday.
The natural growth of the area’s Jewish residents is expected to result in a population in excess of 600,000 by 2030, 685,112 by 2035 and over a million by 2050, former lawmaker Ya’akov Katz’s report predicted.
Katz credited Smotrich—who also serves as a minister in Israel’s Defense Ministry responsible for civilian matters in Judea and Samaria—and Israel’s minister for settlement and national missions, Orit Strook, for helping bring about “a far-reaching revolution.”
Smotrich and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu have led an unprecedented drive to expand control of Judea and Samaria, said Katz.
Over the past 24 months, the two leaders oversaw the establishment of 69 new towns, approved more than 60,000 housing units and classified tens of thousands of hectares of land as state property, he explained.
The changes were made possible by the transfer of dozens of key powers—about 70 in total—from the Defense Ministry’s Civil Administration to a civilian deputy appointed by Smotrich, effectively giving the minister far-reaching powers over Judea and Samaria affairs, according to Katz.
US Ambassador to Israel Mike Huckabee, during a Feb. 20 interview with controversial podcaster Tucker Carlson, declared that Judea and Samaria’s Area C, which constitutes 60% of the territories, “is Israel.”
“Area C is Israel. And Israelis can live in Israel. That’s what it is,” he said.
Huckabee’s remarks indicated a potential shift from US policy, which does not recognize Israeli sovereignty over Judea and Samaria, though the Trump administration has said that civilian communities in the territory are “not per se inconsistent with international law.”
Politico reported on Monday that top State Department officials were in touch with Arab countries that expressed anger over the remarks, saying these are Huckabee’s personal views and do not reflect a shift in policy.
Nearly 70% of Israeli citizens want Jerusalem to extend full legal sovereignty to Judea and Samaria, according to a 2025 survey.
Fifty-eight percent of Israeli Jews believe that communities in Judea and Samaria contribute to the security of the country, according to a survey the Jewish People Policy Institute (JPPI) published on March 11, 2025.
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