The Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Emigrants issued a statement criticizing the trip of Smotrich, known for his far-right, racist and anti-Palestinian position.
The new aggression confirms “the ambitions of (Prime Minister Benjamin) Netanyahu’s far-right coalition in the occupied West Bank, including East Jerusalem,” the Ministry stressed, and accused Netanyahu of accelerating the pace of land confiscation and deepening the gradual annexation of the West Bank.
The Ministry considered that the visit is a public encouragement to the settlers to carry out more violations and crimes against Palestinian citizens, their lands, properties and sacred places, in response to which it called on the international community, and especially the United States, to pressure Israeli authorities into ending “their open war against the Palestinian people and the invasion of the extreme right.”
To this end, it demanded international protection for the population of the occupied territories.
As recently reported by the Palestinian Prime Minister, Mohammad Shtayyeh, over 751 thousand Israeli settlers live in the occupied West Bank, including East Jerusalem.
Both the UN Security Council and most of the world consider these communities illegal and demand their evacuation, to which Israel responds with a resounding rejection.
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