In a rare interview with an Arabic daily, Defense Minister Benny Gantz shied away from supporting a Palestinian state, saying that the Palestinians deserved an “entity” and that Jerusalem “must remain united.”
But the centrist politician, the leader of the Blue and White party, said that while Israel’s capital will remain undivided, “there’s room” for the Palestinians to also establish their capital in the holy city.
“The Palestinians want and deserve an entity in which they can live independently,” Gantz, a former IDF chief of staff, told the Saudi daily al-Sharq al-Awsat, one of the Arab world’s better-known broadsheets.
Palestinians have long demanded an independent state and harshly criticized Israeli and American plans that they say offer them autonomy without statehood. Palestinian Authority officials publicly claim to support a two-state solution: an independent state of Palestine in the West Bank and the Gaza Strip — the 1967 ceasefire lines — with its capital in East Jerusalem.
When his interviewer pressed Gantz further on whether the Palestinian entity he was calling for would constitute a state, the defense minister dodged the question.
“A state or an empire, they can call it whatever they want. It is their right to feel independence and have a capital,” Gantz said. READ MORE
