Washington/Tel Aviv, Mar. 3, (dpa/GNA) - The United States on Wednesday condemned comments made by Israeli Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich, who said he was in favour of “erasing” the small Palestinian town of Huwara in the West Bank.
On Sunday, two Israelis, aged 20 and 22, were shot dead by a suspected Palestinian gunman in Huwara, a village south of Nablus in the northern West Bank.
Afterwards, Israeli settlers rioted in the vicinity of the crime scene, injuring hundreds of Palestinians. Dozens of houses, shops and cars were also set on fire.
Smotrich, who is also in charge of settlement expansion in the West Bank, told TheMarker business daily at a conference on Wednesday: “I think the village of Huwara must be erased. I think the state of Israel has to do this – for God’s sake not private citizens.”
US State Department spokesman Ned Price condemned the comments.
“These comments were irresponsible. They were repugnant. They were disgusting,” he said in Washington. “Just as we condemn Palestinian incitement to violence, we condemn these provocative remarks that also amount to incitement to violence.”
Price went on to call on Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and other senior Israeli officials “to publicly and clearly reject and disavow these comments.”
“We condemn, as we have consistently, terrorism and extremism in all of its forms. And we continue to urge that there be equal measures of accountability for extremist actions regardless of the background of the perpetrators or the victims,” Price told reporters.
He said it is now more important than ever that Israelis and Palestinians work together to de-escalate tensions and restore the calm that both Israelis and Palestinians deserve.
According to estimates by the Central Palestinian Bureau of Statistics, around 7,400 Palestinians live in Huwara. A central connecting road runs through the small town, which is also used daily by many Israeli settlers in the northern West Bank.
Since the beginning of the year, 13 Israelis and one Ukrainian woman have been killed in Palestinian attacks. In the same period, 63 Palestinians have died – they were killed in confrontations with the Israeli army, for example, or in the course of carrying out attacks of their own.
Israel conquered the West Bank and East Jerusalem in 1967. Today, more than 600,000 Israeli settlers live there. The Palestinians claim the territories for an independent state of Palestine with Arab East Jerusalem as its capital.
GNA