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November 28, 2024 | 08:06 pm
TEMPO.CO, Jakarta - Far-right Finance Minister of Israel, Bezalel Smotrich, said Israel must occupy the Gaza Strip and halve its Palestinian population by promoting “voluntary emigration.”
"We can and must conquer the Gaza Strip, we should not be afraid of that word," Smotrich said on Monday night at an event organized by the Yesha Council, an umbrella group representing Israeli settlers in the occupied West Bank.
"There is no doubt that in Gaza -- with the encouragement of voluntary emigration -- there is here, in my opinion, a unique opportunity that is opening up with the new administration," he said. He referred to the recent re-election of Donald Trump as U.S. president.
"We can create a situation in which, within two years, the population of Gaza will be reduced by half," Smotrich said, as quoted by NDTV.
Smotrich leads the ultranationalist Religious Zionism party. His comments in the past few months have sparked controversy.
In August, he triggered international outrage by suggesting that starving two million Gaza residents to release Israeli hostages in Palestinian territories was justified.
On November 14, 2024, a Human Rights Watch report accused Israel of committing crimes against humanity by mass displacing Gaza residents. Israel vehemently denied this claim.
According to HRW, Israel's actions meet the definition of ethnic cleansing in areas where Palestinians are not allowed to return.
The European Union's outgoing foreign policy chief Josep Borrell had previously condemned Israel's actions in Gaza. "The words ‘ethnic cleansing’ are increasingly used to describe what is going on in north Gaza," Borrell said in a social media post on November 11.
Smotrich and fellow far-right cabinet member, National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir, previously sparked an outcry in January with a plan for "voluntary transfer" of 2.4 million Gaza residents. The United States at that time rejected their statements.
Israel’s ongoing war on Gaza has killed over 44,000 Palestinians, destroyed most of the enclave’s infrastructure, and prompted the issuance of arrest warrants by the International Criminal Court for Netanyahu, former Defence Minister Yoav Gallant, as well as Hamas military commander Mohammed Deif (who has been pronounced dead by Israel).
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