Bezalel Yoel Smotrich (Hebrew: בְּצַלְאֵל יוֹאֵל סְמוֹטְרִיץ׳; born 27 February 1980) is an Israeli far-right politician and lawyer who has served as the Minister of Finance since 2022.

His grandfather Shimon was a 13th-generation native of Jerusalem, and his grandmother Sara was born in Metula to a family of Zionist pioneers.

[4][13] According to former Shin Bet deputy chief Yitzhak Ilan, who interrogated him at the time, during the protests against the Israeli disengagement from Gaza, Smotrich was arrested in 2005 while in possession of 700 litres of gasoline on suspicion of participating in an attempt to blow up Ayalon Highway, a major arterial road.

[17] In the build-up to the 2015 Knesset elections, Smotrich won second place on the Tkuma list after party leader Uri Ariel.

[22] He is said to have played a key role in Israeli legislation to legalize the annexation of Palestinian lands and a law banning advocates for the Boycott, Divestment, Sanctions movement from visiting Israel.

Other sponsors of this legislation are Miki Zohar from Likud, Yoav Ben-Tzur from Shas, and Nissan Slomiansky from The Jewish Home.

[26] Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu distanced himself from the comments, and appointed openly gay MK Amir Ohana to the post.

[5] In a 2015 interview Smotrich stated that "The Palestinian Authority is a burden, and Hamas is an asset",[40][41][42][43] noting that, while the PA was harming Israel in international forums, Hamas' status as a terrorist organization meant that "no one will recognize it, no one will give it status at the [International Criminal Court], no one will let it put forth a resolution at the U.N. Security Council".

[40] According to journalist Ron Ben-Yishai, in his dual role as finance minister and adjunct minister in the Ministry of Defense, Smotrich intends to implement ideas set forth in his "Decisive Plan" (2017)[44] which, according to Ben-Yishai, foresees: "Flood[ing], simply so, the areas of Judea and Samaria with settlements and Jewish settlers.

When this happens, the Palestinians are supposed to understand that they have no chance to get a state of their own, and they would have to choose between one of the three options – a life of subjugation under Israeli rule, emigration, or a shahid [martyr] death".

[45] In July 2015 Smotrich caused controversy by declaring in a Knesset Interior meeting that developers in Israel should not have to sell homes to Arabs.

"[46] Smotrich has argued that price tag assaults on Palestinian people or property, while criminal in nature, are not to be classified as examples of terrorism, which he defined as "only violence carried out by an enemy within the framework of war against us".

Commenting on a specific case, the Duma arson attack, in which a Palestinian family of 3 were killed, and for which a Jewish settler was indicted, Smotrich stated that to brand such deeds as terrorism causes "mortal and unjustified harm to human and civil rights".

[58] In November 2023 he called for Palestinian-free zones around Israeli settlements in the West Bank, saying that Israel must "create sterile security areas around [Jewish] communities and roads and prevent Arabs from entering them, including for the purpose of olive harvesting.

[60] On 3 January 2024, Smotrich said that "more than 70% of the Israeli public today supports a humanitarian solution of encouraging the voluntary immigration of Gaza Arabs and their absorption in other countries.

[64] The European Union's foreign policy chief has requested that some Israeli ministers be sanctioned by the 27 member states of the bloc for their 'hate messages' towards Palestinians.

[71][69] Ometz, an Israeli NGO, filed a complaint to the Knesset Ethics Committee to intervene and investigate Smotrich's comments.

[72] In a leaked recording of a private conversation published in January 2023 by Israeli Public Broadcasting Corporation, he said: "I won't stone gays [to death], and you won't force me to eat shrimp", and, in an apparent sarcastic remark, said: "I may be a far-right person, a homophobe, racist, fascist, but my word is my bond".

The comment came following the passing of a Knesset bill permitting local religious authorities to bar non-Orthodox from using public mikvahs for conversion ceremonies, which countered a Supreme Court ruling to the contrary.

[85] An article by former United States ambassador to Israel Martin Indyk and former Jordanian United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights Zeid bin Ra'ad in Foreign Policy argued that the insistence of Israeli right-wing Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich on curbing the powers of the Supreme Court stems from a desire to "more easily enact his vision of an Israel that extends unimpeded from river to sea", as the court had previously impeded the legalization of Israeli settlements built on privately owned Palestinian land.