Today, Wednesday, Israeli Finance and National Security Ministers Bezalel Smotrich and Itamar Ben Gvir criticized the United States for describing their statements regarding the displacement of Gaza residents as “irresponsible.”
The official Israeli Broadcasting Corporation quoted Smotrich as saying, “More than 70% of the Israeli public supports a humanitarian solution to encourage the voluntary immigration of Gaza Arabs and their absorption in other countries.”
He added, adhering to his position, that “Israeli society will not agree to the continuation of this reality in Gaza. We are required to rethink and participate with our friends in the international community.”
Smotrich claimed that a million people in Gaza wake up every morning with a desire to destroy Israel, and explained that the context would be different if there were 100,000 or 200,000 Arabs in Gaza instead of two million.
Smotrich, the leader of the far-right Religious Zionism party, is a settler in the West Bank and supports settlement. In 2005, he opposed Israel’s unilateral withdrawal from Gaza, and in recent weeks he has expressed support for re-settlement in the Strip.
Smotrich and his friend Ben Gvir, leader of the far-right “Jewish Power” party, openly called for the displacement of Palestinians from the Gaza Strip.
Israeli National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir criticized the United States after describing his statements about the displacement of Gaza residents as “irresponsible,” stressing that Israel is not “another star on the American flag.”
He added in a tweet on the X platform that the United States is Israel’s best friend, but above all, the Israelis will do what is best for them. He believed that the migration of hundreds of thousands from the Strip would allow the residents of the Gaza Strip (settlers) to return to their homes and live in safety.
US State Department statement
The two ministers’ statements came after the US State Department issued a statement confirming Washington’s rejection of the “irresponsible statements” made by Smotrich and Ben Gvir regarding the voluntary displacement of Palestinians out of Gaza.
US State Department spokesman Matthew Miller announced yesterday, Tuesday, that the United States denounces the statements issued by the two Israeli ministers that called for the settlement of Palestinians outside the Gaza Strip.
Miller described the statements made by the two ministers as “inflammatory and irresponsible.” He stressed that the Israeli government itself has repeatedly demonstrated that these statements do not express its policy.
Miller stressed that the United States’ position is clear and consistent that the Gaza Strip is part of the Palestinian territories, and will remain so, without Hamas controlling its future, and without a threat to Israel from “terrorist” groups.
Recently, Israel has adopted calls to stimulate the voluntary migration of Palestinians out of the Gaza Strip, despite official American criticism of those calls.
Since the “Al-Aqsa Flood”, Israel has been waging a devastating war on Gaza, which, as of Tuesday, resulted in the death of 22,185 Palestinians and the injury of 57,35 others, most of them children and women. This war also caused massive destruction of infrastructure and left an “unprecedented humanitarian catastrophe,” according to Palestinian and international reports.