Smotrich refers to Nazis as he brands Germany 'hypocrites' over Israeli settler criticism

Far-right Israeli minister Bezalel Smotrich has invoked the history of the Nazi Holocaust as he branded Germany "hypocrites" after Chancellor Friedrich Merz said he was "deeply concerned" about settler attacks in the occupied West Bank.

Writing before Israel marks Holocaust Remembrance Day, Smotrich said the German chancellor "should bow his head and apologise a thousand times on behalf of Germany" for the death of six million Jews in the Holocaust rather than "preach morality" to Israel.

"We 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," Smotrich posted on X.

"​The days when Germans dictated to Jews where they were permitted or forbidden to live are over and shall not return. You will not force us into ghettos again, certainly not in our own land," he wrote.

"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 apologise for it for a single moment."

Smotrich, who referred to the Palestinians as the "Nazis of our generation", was responding to Merz saying he had raised the issue of attacks by West Bank settlers during a phone call with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

"I am deeply concerned about developments in the Palestinian territories," Merz posted on social media. The German chancellor said that in the phone call with Netanyahu, "I made it clear: There must be no de facto annexation of the West Bank."

There has been a significant acceleration in West Bank settlement expansion, which has risen sharply since the start of Israel’s genocide in Gaza in 2023.

According to the Israeli advocacy group Peace Now, 54 settlements were approved by the Israeli government last year – an all-time high, breaking the previous record of nine in 2023.

Of these, 26 were unauthorised outposts retroactively legalised by the government.

The report also noted a surge in unauthorised outposts, reaching 86 - almost 40 percent higher than the previous year, averaging one to two new outposts per week.

A United Nations report released on 17 March recorded that more than 36,000 Palestinians were displaced in the West Bank between November 2024 and October 2025, amid relentless settler attacks.

During the same period, 1,732 incidents of settler violence causing casualties or property damage were documented – up by 25 percent from the previous year.

Smotrich has been a strong supporter of West Bank annexation and has pushed for Palestinians to be "encouraged" to leave the territory.

Speaking in February at a meeting of his Religious Zionism party and settlement leaders in the West Bank, he called for an end to the Oslo Accords that created the Palestinian Authority in 1993.

“Destroy the idea of an Arab terror state; finally, formally and practically cancel the cursed Oslo Accords and get on the path of sovereignty, while encouraging migration both from Gaza and from Judea and Samaria,” he said, using the Israeli nationalist term for the West Bank.

“There is no other long-term solution.”