Bezalel Smotrich, Israel’s finance minister and the head of the far-right Religious Zionist party, has done more than any other Israeli politician to further the Jewish settlement enterprise in the occupied West Bank.Smotrich, who also holds the role of minister for West Bank civilian affairs in Israel’s defence ministry in Binyamin Netanyahu’s right-wing and religious government, has spearheaded an unprecedented growth in settlements and formalised the status of scores of illegal outposts across what he terms Judea and Samaria, the Biblical term for the West Bank.The results of his efforts can be seen on a short journey through the West Bank. Congested winding roads are now being turned into superhighways connecting the main settlement blocs and new neighbourhoods are going up in nearly every Jewish community.What has happened in the three-and-a-half years since the current government came to power amounts to the de facto annexation by Israel of the West Bank, captured from Jordan in the 1967 Six-Day War, even though most of the international community considers all Jewish settlements illegal under international law.Bezalel Smotrich displays a map of an area near the settlement of Maale Adumim, a land corridor known as E1, outside Jerusalem in the occupied West Bank. Photograph: Menahem Kahana/AFP/Getty Images But Smotrich is a frustrated politician. Despite his hard work, his Religious Zionist party fails to pass the minimum 3.25 per cent electoral threshold required to gain the minimum four seats in the 120-seat Knesset parliament in nearly all opinion polls.Far-right voters prefer the even more extreme Otzma Yehudit party, led by national security minister Itamar Ben-Gvir. With elections due in September or October the issue is a big headache for Netanyahu, who fears right-wing votes “going to waste” if the Religious Zionists don’t pass the threshold.But has the International Criminal Court in The Hague thrown Smotrich – and Netanyahu – a lifeline? On Tuesday, Smotrich revealed that the court is seeking a confidential arrest warrant against him.Accusing the court of “anti-Semitism” and the Palestinian Authority of “declaring war”, he responded by ordering the dismantling of Khan al-Ahmar, a West Bank Bedouin enclave straddling the main Jerusalem-Jericho highway, where residents have long resisted efforts by Israel to evict them from their homes.Bezalel Smotrich with Israeli prime minister Binyamin Netanyahu. Photograph: EPA Right-wing parties have been pressing for the removal of the hamlet, which was established without planning permission, for years but international pressure forced Israel to leave the community in place.Smotrich hopes his action will boost his electoral popularity and propel his party over the threshold.On Wednesday, Khan al-Ahmar residents and civil society NGOs petitioned Israel’s high court to prevent evictions, arguing that the plan to transfer the residents from the village into urban East Jerusalem is incompatible with their way of life.While Smotrich will fight the petition, he will also have one eye on the polls.