Monday, October 28, 2024

Smotrich urges ramping up West Bank, Gaza settlements, pushing Palestinians out

Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich called Sunday for Israel to effectively annex the West Bank and Gaza Strip, calling for the establishment of new settlements deep inside Palestinian areas and the departure of Arabs harboring nationalist aspirations.

The comments from the leader of the far-right Religious Zionism party marked the latest instance of one of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s political allies urging the re-establishment of Israeli settlements inside the Gaza Strip while reversing the country’s 2005 withdrawal from the enclave.

Addressing the Middle East Summit, a conference in Jerusalem organized by Israel 365, an Israeli media outlet aimed at American evangelicals, Smotrich described repeated attempts to reach a two-state solution as wrongheaded, urging they be abandoned and replaced by an “unequivocal Israeli statement to the Arabs and the entire world that a Palestinian state will not be established.” (Read More)