Israel’s far-right Minister of Finance Bezalel Smotrich said he would pursue a policy of “encouraging the migration” of Palestinians from the occupied West Bank and Gaza Strip, Israeli media reported yesterday.
“We will eliminate the idea of an Arab terror state,” Smotrich said at an event organized by his Religious Zionism Party late on Tuesday.
“We will finally, formally and in practical terms nullify the cursed Oslo Accords and embark on a path toward sovereignty, while encouraging emigration from both Gaza and Judea and Samaria,” he said..
Photo: Reuters
“There is no other long-term solution,” added Smotrich, who lives in a settlement in the West Bank.
Since last week, Israel has approved a series of measures backed by far-right ministers to tighten control over the West Bank, including in areas administered by the Palestinian Authority under the Oslo Accords, in place since the 1990s.
The measures include a process to register land in the West Bank as “state property” and facilitate direct purchases of land by Jewish Israelis.
The measures have triggered widespread international outrage.
On Tuesday, the UN missions of 85 countries condemned the measures, which critics say amount to de facto annexation of the Palestinian territory.
“We strongly condemn unilateral Israeli decisions and measures aimed at expanding Israel’s unlawful presence in the West Bank,” they said in a statement.
“Such decisions are contrary to Israel’s obligations under international law and must be immediately reversed,” they said.
“We underline in this regard our strong opposition to any form of annexation,” they said.
UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres on Monday called on Israel to reverse its land registration policy, calling it “destabilizing” and “unlawful.”
The West Bank would form the largest part of any future Palestinian state. Many on Israel’s religious right view it as Israeli land.
Israeli non-governmental organization have also raised the alarm over a settlement plan signed by the government, which they say would mark the first expansion of Jerusalem’s borders into the occupied West Bank since 1967.
The planned development, announced by the Israeli Ministry of Construction and Housing, is formally a westward expansion of the Geva Binyamin, or Adam, settlement situated northeast of Jerusalem in the West Bank.
The Israeli government has fast-tracked settlement expansion, approving a record 52 settlements last year. Excluding Israeli-annexed east Jerusalem, more than 500,000 Israelis live in West Bank settlements and outposts, which are illegal under international law.
About 3 million Palestinians live in the territory, which Israel has occupied since 1967.
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