Ben Gvir said: “I have great appreciation for the United States, but with all due respect, Israel is not another star on the American flag.”
He added, “The migration of hundreds of thousands of people from Gaza will allow the residents of the Gaza vicinity to return to their homes. The United States is our good friend, but above all we will do what is best for Israel.”
US State Department spokesman Matthew Miller said in a statement, “The United States rejects the recent statements by Israeli ministers Bezalel Smotrich and Ben Gvir calling for the resettlement of Palestinians outside Gaza.”
He added that these statements are “inflammatory and irresponsible.”
The American spokesman stressed that Washington considers “Gaza to be Palestinian land and will remain Palestinian land.”
On Monday, Ben Gvir said, “Promoting a solution that encourages the migration of Gazans is necessary. It is a correct, just, moral, and humane solution.”
He stressed that the exit of the Palestinians from the Gaza Strip would also open the way for the re-establishment of Jewish settlements on Palestinian lands.
In 2005, Israel withdrew its army and about 8,000 settlers from the Gaza Strip, which it had occupied since 1967, as part of a unilateral withdrawal plan presented by then Prime Minister Ariel Sharon.
Ben Gvir considered that “encouraging the migration of Gazans will allow us to return the population of the border areas and the former Gush Katif settlement bloc in the Gaza Strip.”
Ben Gvir's call came the day after a similar call made by Israeli Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich, in which he said that Jewish settlers should return to the Gaza Strip after the end of the war, and that the Palestinians of the Strip should be encouraged to immigrate to other countries.
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