Israel’s envoy to Netherlands summoned home after slamming Ben Gvir and Smotrich

By Lazar Berman

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Today, 10:07 pm

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Lazar Berman is The Times of Israel's diplomatic reporter

Israel’s Ambassador to the Netherlands, Zvi Aviner Vapni, has been summoned back to Israel for a clarification meeting after he criticized two far-right Israeli ministers, the Foreign Ministry tells The Times of Israel.

National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir and Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich “have said things that I find terrible and unacceptable,” Vapni told Algemeen Dagblad. “I feel no need whatsoever to protect them.”

He also called violent settler extremists in the West Bank “hooligans and Jewish terrorists.”

“They should all go to prison,” he said. “I think 80% of Israelis agree with that. That violence must stop. I do not want to defend it; what they are doing is reprehensible.”