Jakarta –
Conflict between Israel and Palestine is heating up again. This time it was triggered by a controversial comment from an Israeli minister who urged that the Palestinian city be ‘annihilated’.
This statement immediately sparked international public outrage. Criticism also came from Arab countries to the United Nations.
Reported by AFP news agency, Saturday (4/3/2023), Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich, a member of the right-wing Israeli coalition government, made the comments last Wednesday, days after two Israeli settlers were shot dead in the town of Huwara. After the shooting, hundreds of Jewish settlers attacked the town of Huwara in the West Bank.
“I think Huwara needs to be exterminated,” Smotrich said. “I think the State of Israel should do it,” he said.
Later, he wrote on Twitter that he had “no intention of annihilating Huwara, but only acting in a targeted manner against the terrorists”.
Arab-Qatar condemnation
The Saudi Foreign Ministry later condemned the statement and expressed “total rejection of such racist and irresponsible statements, reflecting massive violence and extremism committed by the Israeli occupation entity against the Palestinian brothers.”
It also condemned the government of Qatar, which called Smotrich’s comments “hateful and provocative” and deemed them “serious incitement to war crimes”.
The United Nations Joins the Voice
Head of human rights (HAM) United Nations (UN) condemned the statement of an Israeli minister who insisted that a Palestinian city in turmoil be “destroyed”.
But the UN human rights chief, Volker Turk, addressing the UN Human Rights Council in Geneva, denounced Smotrich’s initial comments as “an unexpected statement of incitement to violence and hostility”.
Turk called on both sides to abide by the de-escalation commitments reached after last Sunday’s talks in Jordan.
“In the near future, settlements on the occupied lands must end. And in the near future, there must be a two-state solution,” Turk stressed.
“For this violence to end, the occupation must end. On all sides, people know this,” he said.
America joined in condemning the Israeli minister’s statement. See on the next page:
(ygs/ygs)
