Extremist Israeli minister demands apology from German chancellor over ‘no West Bank annexation’

Israel's far-right Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich has demanded an apology from German Chancellor Friedrich Merz for saying that "there must be no de facto annexation of the West Bank."

"On the eve of Holocaust Remembrance Day, the German Chancellor should bow his head and apologize a thousand times on behalf of Germany, rather than daring to preach morality to us on how to conduct ourselves against the Nazis of our generation," Smotrich said on the US social media platform X late Monday.

Israel will "not accept instructions from hypocritical leaders in Europe, a continent that is once again losing its conscience and its ability to distinguish between good and evil," he claimed.

"The days when Germans dictated to Jews" were over, Smotrich said.

"Our return to the Land of Israel -- our biblical and historical homeland -- is the answer to anyone who tried or tries to destroy us, and we do not apologize for it for a single moment," he said.

The far-right minister's remarks came after Merz on Monday voiced "deep concern" over the situation in the Palestinian territories, saying a "de facto partial annexation of the West Bank" must be prevented.

Since the start of the Gaza war in October 2023, attacks by the Israeli army and occupiers in the West Bank have killed at least 1,133 Palestinians, wounded about 11,700 others and led to nearly 22,000 arrests, according to Palestinian figures.

In a landmark opinion in July 2024, the International Court of Justice declared Israel's occupation of Palestinian territory illegal and called for the evacuation of all settlements in the West Bank and East Jerusalem.