Overview
- German Chancellor Friedrich Merz said he told Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu there must be no de facto annexation of the West Bank and voiced concern about attacks by Israeli settlers.
- Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich fired back on X on the eve of Holocaust Remembrance Day, telling Merz to apologize “a thousand times” and writing, “You will not force us into ghettos again,” while calling Palestinians “the Nazis of our generation.”
- Israel’s ambassador to Germany, Ron Prosor, condemned Smotrich’s comments as eroding the memory of the Holocaust and said it is legitimate to argue with Berlin without using such language.
- Peace Now reported a record 54 settlement approvals last year, including 26 unauthorized outposts retroactively legalized by the government, reflecting a sharp acceleration in settlement expansion.
- A United Nations report released in March recorded more than 36,000 Palestinians displaced in the West Bank between November 2024 and October 2025 and documented 1,732 incidents of settler violence.