The Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Expatriates denounced in a statement the recent exhortations in this regard made by the Israeli Ministers of National Security, Itamar Ben Gvir, and Finance, Bezelel Smotrich, who are known for their anti-Arab positions and head the most radical sector of the Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s far-right executive.

The Foreign Ministry criticized the incitement against the Palestinians, pointing out that the strategy is part of an official policy based on demonizing the citizens of the occupied territories to justify the massacres and displacements, and warned about the dangers of that vision: “its disastrous repercussions in the scenario of the current conflict and for the security and stability of the region.”

Smotrich announced on Thursday that the Government gave the green light to the construction of over three thousand Jewish colonies around the occupied area of East Jerusalem. He detailed that 2,350 will rise in the settlement of Ma’ale Adumim, 300 in Kedar, and 694 in Efrat.

The international community and several UN Security Council resolutions reject Israel’s colonial policy in the West Bank, which the world considers part of the future Palestinian state.

More than 700,000 settlers currently live in the West Bank, including east Jerusalem.

jrr/llp/jha/Rob