From the Liveblog of
Monday, January 1, 2024
Smotrich repeats call to reestablish Gaza settlements
Sam Sokol is the Times of Israel's political correspondent. He was previously a reporter for the Jerusalem Post, Jewish Telegraphic Agency and Haaretz. He is the author of "Putin’s Hybrid War and the Jews"
Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich reiterates his call for the reestablishment of Jewish settlements in the Gaza Strip and the “voluntary emigration” of Palestinians following the end of combat operations in the Hamas-controlled coastal territory.
The “correct solution” to the ongoing Israeli-Palestinian conflict is “to encourage the voluntary migration of Gaza’s residents to countries that will agree to take in the refugees,” he says at his far-right Religious Zionism party’s weekly faction meeting, predicting that “Israel will permanently control the territory of the Gaza Strip,” including through the establishment of settlements.
Smotrich’s comments come two days after he told Channel 12 that he was “for completely changing the reality in Gaza… We’ll need to rule there for a long time… If we want to be there militarily, we need to be there in a civilian fashion.”
He also repeated his previous statement that Jerusalem could not allow Gaza to remain as a “hothouse of 2 million people who want destroy the State of Israel” and said that while he appreciates the support of the United States, “as long as I am the finance minister, not one shekel will go to the Nazi terrorists in Gaza.”
US President Joe Biden recently held a “frustrating” call with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, Axios reported, in which he stated that Jerusalem’s decision to withhold Palestinian tax funds following Hamas’s shock onslaught on October 7, including some funds the Palestinian Authority intends to send to Gaza, must be reexamined.
The Times of Israel Community.