National Union Party leader Benny Gantz, a prominent figure in the opposition, said on Tuesday that far-right Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich and others in the government are supporters of anarchy in the West Bank, and predicted that escalating violence would lead to ruin .
Gantz told Army Radio, “Smotrich wants to create another Palestinian mask, where the people there don’t know where they will go,” referring to the Palestinians’ call for the creation of Israel and their displacement during Israel’s War of Independence. “We Israelis are not going anywhere, and the Palestinians are not going anywhere.”
“From their point of view, an increase is a good thing, settlements in the most crowded parts of Judea and Samaria are a good thing, abolish the Palestinian Authority A good thing,” Gantz said of Smotrich, referring to the West Bank by its biblical names.
Smotrich, who is also a minister in the Ministry of Defense, and other far-right lawmakers are staunch supporters of the settlement movement. Smotrich has used his position to stop evictions from illegal settlements.
Gantz said on Sunday a settler uprising in the Palestinian city of Huwara was a risk to Israel, and condemned support for the settlers from some members of the government, calling the rioters “militia with support from some coalition figures”. Said. The Huwara riots occurred after a terrorist killed two Israelis in the town.
“It’s not fair, it doesn’t represent our values, it’s not right for our strategy, it’s not legally right,” Gantz said of the rampage. “I am really disturbed by the support I have received from some people in politics who, instead of trying to calm things down, walked out with torches in a place full of gas fumes.”
“That’s not how responsible leadership works,” he said. “That’s not how an advanced country functions, that’s not how a law-abiding country functions.”
Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich at a conference in Jerusalem, February 21, 2023. (Jonathan Sindel/Flash90)
Following the riot, MK Zvika Fogel of the far-right Otzma Yehudit party – chairman of the Knesset’s National Security Committee – was outspoken in his support for the rioters and condemned the government of its party leader Itamar Ben Gvir.
“A closed, burnt out hoover – that’s what I want to see. This is the only way to get redress. After a murder like yesterday, when the IDF doesn’t act, we need villages burning,” Fogel said,
Another member of Otzma Yehudit, MK Limor Son Har-Melek, Huwara Gaya on the night of the riot “to support the righteous cry of hundreds of residents.”
He called for the “elimination of terrorist incidents to the last of them”.
smotrich offered silent response Riot and National Security Minister Ben Gwir released no statement.
Gantz said that Smotrich and other far-right lawmakers were deliberately trying to block the two-state solution.
“I think the direction he is pulling us is endangering our Zionist character,” Gantz said, blaming Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu for the situation.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu at a Likud faction meeting in the Knesset on February 6, 2023. (Jonathan Sindel/Flash90)
“There is one person who bothers me more than anyone else – Netanyahu. He is the head of the system,” Gantz said. “He sent them there, he is supporting them, he is responsible for this decline.”
“The problem isn’t Smotrich, and it’s not Ben Gwir and it’s not Fogel. The problem is Netanyahu. He’s letting the system break down,” Gantz said. “All this is the responsibility of Netanyahu, not his emissaries.”
“This is a very dangerous slope that cannot be allowed to stand,” Gantz told Radio 103 in a separate interview. “You don’t do things like that. We only have one army. Setting fire to the ground doesn’t seem like the safest course to me.”
Gantz is a former IDF Chief of Staff and served as Defense Minister in the previous government. He met with Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas as defense minister to boost security ties, drawing strong criticism from Netanyahu and his political allies.
After the Huwara riot, Smotrich did not condemn the stampede, expressed understanding for the “great pain” caused by the deadly terror attack that morning, called on the crowd not to “take the law into their own hands” and promised that the government would would send “a real response to terrorism, both military and settlement”.
Smotrich also “liked” a tweet by Davidi Ben Zion, the deputy mayor of the Samaria Regional Council, that called for “erasing the village of Huwara today”.
A Palestinian man walks past charred cars at a junkyard following a settler riot in the town of Huwara, near the West Bank city of Nablus, on February 27, 2023. (AP Photo/Ohd Zwiegenberg)
Smotrich, head of the far-right Religious Zionism party, has tried to use his role as a minister within the Ministry of Defense to prevent the civilian administration from carrying out settler evacuation orders, although he does not support Defense Minister Yoav Galant. have gone against. Netanyahu’s Likud Party
The day after the riot, Netanyahu said“With full gusto and passion, there is no room for anarchy, we will not accept anarchy.”
“We will not accept a reality where people… set houses on fire, burn cars, intentionally harm innocent people,” he said. This is what our enemies want to see: a loss of control and a never-ending cycle of blood, fire and smoke,” Netanyahu said. He did not directly name the city of Huwara or pin the blame for the violent stampede on any specific group of people.
Netanyahu and parts of his Likud party have been in conflict with some of the far-right and religious elements of the coalition since the government came to power in December.
This photo taken on February 27, 2023 shows an aerial view of a junkyard in the Palestinian town of Huwara, near Nablus in the West Bank, where cars were burned overnight (Ronaldo Schmidt/AFP)
During the Huwara riots, hundreds of people rioted in the community and other nearby towns, one Palestinian killed and badly injuring many others, as well as setting houses and cars on fire, and killing sheep. Even after two days no one has come under control on this unprecedented stampede.
Extremist settlers have also clashed with IDF forces in the area.
The day after the riot, a series of shootings took place against Israelis on the streets of the West Bank, including an attack Israeli-American Alan Ganless killed While he was driving near Jericho. The IDF is still searching for the perpetrators.
A report on Tuesday night said that incidents of settler violence had doubled since the new government came to power in late December, and that the Shin Bet security service was working to prevent the situation from escalating further. warning the settler leaders and rabbis against further violence and anarchy. getting out of control.
According to Channel 12, there have been 190 incidents classified as nationalistically motivated Jewish violence in the past two months, double the number compared to the same period a year earlier.
The Israeli general in charge of troops in the West Bank, Major General Yehuda Fuchs, said tuesday that the ravaged settlers in Huwara had committed a “massacre” and accused them of “spreading terror”.
Fuchs also told Hebrew-language media that he was concerned that conflict between soldiers and settlers would eventually kill Israelis.