DThe United States was the first, followed by other Western countries such as France, Germany and Great Britain: all of them, including the UN, condemned statements made by the two Israeli ministers, Itamar Ben-Gvir and Bezalel Smotrich. They had made a veiled call to largely depopulate the Gaza Strip of Palestinians.
American Foreign Office spokesman Matthew Miller castigated “inflammatory and irresponsible” rhetoric. This should “stop immediately”. In addition to the severity of the criticism, what was unusual was that Miller mentioned the Minister of National Security, Ben-Gvir, as well as Finance Minister Smotrich by name. British Minister of State Tariq Ahmad and the Foreign Office in Paris did the same.
The federal government joined the chorus of critics a little less aggressively. “We reject the statements made by the two ministers very clearly and in the strongest possible terms. They are neither useful nor helpful,” said a spokesman for the Foreign Office on Wednesday evening.
USA for return of the autonomous authority
Two days earlier, at an event for his Jewish Strength party, Ben-Gvir said the war in Gaza was “an opportunity to focus on encouraging Gazans to migrate.” This is a “fair, moral and humane solution”. Smotrich made similar comments to members of his “Religious Zionism” party. He brought into play a “voluntary migration” of Palestinians from the Gaza Strip “to countries that are ready to accept the refugees.”
The statements are related to discussions about the future of the Gaza Strip. While Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has assured the US that Israel is not seeking to reoccupy the territory, he has remained tight-lipped about how it will be governed after the war. Netanyahu rejects the return of the Palestinian Authority, as US President Joe Biden suggested. At the same time, he speaks of ongoing Israeli “security control” over the Gaza Strip.
That's not enough for some of his extreme right-wing coalition partners: they want to repopulate the area. In 2005, Israel's then Prime Minister Ariel Sharon had the Gush Katif settlement bloc in the Gaza Strip evacuated, despite the vehement resistance of radical settlers. Smotrich and Ben-Gvir are among their most important political representatives today. Their proposals for “voluntary migration” of Palestinians are coupled with demands to rebuild Jewish settlements in the Gaza Strip after the war.
Also criticism in the Israeli cabinet
Washington rejected this. The Gaza Strip “is Palestinian land and will remain Palestinian land,” Miller’s statement said. Ben-Gvir rejected the criticism. “We will do what is best for Israel,” he said. “Facilitating the relocation of hundreds of thousands” from the Gaza Strip is also a prerequisite for the security of Israelis in the border area.
Smotrich said Israel “cannot afford a reality in which four minutes from our settlements there is a hotbed of hatred and terror, in which there are two million people who wake up every morning with the desire to destroy the State of Israel “. On Saturday he suggested that only “100,000 to 200,000 Arabs” should live in the Gaza Strip instead of the current 2.4 million Palestinians.
Such statements have been made in Israel for weeks. While some politicians and commentators spoke of wiping out all residents of the Gaza Strip after Hamas' terrorist attack on October 7th, there are now increasing calls for a “transfer” of the Palestinians. Proponents praise this as a “humanitarian solution”. Some politicians even claim to have already found countries in “Latin America and Africa” that are willing to accept refugees. The French statement, on the other hand, emphasizes that forced relocations seriously violate international law.
Criticism of Ben-Gvir and Smotrich's statements also came from within his own government. Culture Minister Miki Zohar called the proposals “unrealistic”: it is clear that “the international community will not accept this.” Certainly no one in Israel would be unhappy if Gazans left voluntarily, Zohar said. But such ideas are better only discussed “behind closed doors”. Post-war plans were to be discussed in the security cabinet for the first time on Thursday evening, after Netanyahu had delayed this for weeks.
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