European governments hit out at statements from two far-right Israeli ministers calling for the resettlement of Palestinians from the Gaza Strip.
Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich, leader of the Religious Zionism Party, on Wednesday doubled down on a call for “voluntary emigration” from Gaza once the current Israel-Hamas war ends, despite criticism from the United States.
And Itamar Ben-Gvir, national security minister and leader of the ultra-nationalist Otzma Yehudit party, this week issued a call “to encourage the migration of Gaza residents” as a “solution” to the humanitarian crisis.
Josep Borrell, the EU’s top foreign policy official, condemned the calls to resettle Palestinians living in Gaza as “inflammatory and irresponsible” on Wednesday.
“Forced displacements are strictly prohibited as a grave violation of [international humanitarian law] and words matter,” Borrell said on X.
Smotrich had argued that voluntary resettlement of the Gaza Strip was needed post-war because Israel could not continue to neighbor a “hotbed of hatred and terrorism, where two million people wake up every morning with aspiration for the destruction of the State of Israel and with a desire to slaughter and rape and murder Jews wherever they are.”
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And this is why there will never be peace in Israel. The Israeli government does whatever it can to incite hatred against the Palestinian people amongst their own population, creating a hotbed in which neither side will ever accept the other. Hamas does the same on the other side. Only Israel as oppressor has the means to steer towards a peaceful path, whereas Palestinian people are fighting for survival against poverty and hunger every day.