by Tovah Lazaroff, Jerusalem Post Staff
Smotrich's retraction of his comments comes amid reports that he won't receive a US visa ahead of his planned visit next week.
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Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Finance Minister
Bezalel Smotrich seen during a press conference, at the Prime Minister's
office in Jerusalem, on January 25, 2023.
(photo credit: YONATAN SINDEL/FLASH90)
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Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu welcomed Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich’s retraction of the statement he made calling to wipe out the West Bank Palestinian town of Huwara.
Last week, the far-right politician called for the West Bank Palestinian town of Huwara to be wiped out after violent settler riots set the town ablaze.
“I think that Huwara needs to be wiped out, but the State of Israel needs to do it, most certainly not private citizens,” he said on Wednesday during a public interview at a conference by business news organization TheMarker.
"It is important for all of us to work to tone down the rhetoric lower the temperature. That includes speaking out forcefully against inappropriate statements and even correcting our own statements."
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu
“It is important for all of us to work to tone down the rhetoric and lower the temperature,” Netanyahu tweeted early Sunday morning.
“That includes speaking out forcefully against inappropriate statements and even correcting our own statements when we misspeak or when our words are taken out of context,” he continued.
Smotrich's comments came after last week’s events in which a Palestinian gunman fatally shot two brothers Hallel Menachem Yaniv, 22, and Yagel Ya’acov Yaniv, 20 as they drove on Route 60 in Huwara on February 26.
Settlers attacked Huwara later that night, setting fire to dozens of homes and vehicles. The IDF is investigating the shooting death of a Palestinian man, Sameh Aqtash, 37, during the attack.
On February 27, a Palestinian gunman fatally shot US-Israeli citizen Elan Ganeles, 26 as he drove through the Jordan Valley to a wedding.
Deafening silence
Netanyahu tweeted that he wanted to “thank Minister Bezalel [Smotrich] for making clear that his choice of words regarding the vigilante attacks on [Huwara] following the murder of the Yaniv brothers was inappropriate and that he is strongly opposed to intentionally harming innocent civilians.”
“While Minister [Smotrich] clarified his position, I am still waiting to hear a condemnation from the Palestinian Authority for the murder of the Yaniv brothers. And Israel is waiting for the international community to insist that the PA condemn that attack.
"Not only has it not done so, but it also continues to turn a blind eye to the PA’s rampant incitement, to the disgusting spectacle of Palestinians handing out sweets to celebrate terror attacks against Jews and to the official PA pay-to-slay policy, in which the PA pays terrorists to murder Jews.
“The international community’s silence in the face of Palestinian support for terrorism must finally come to an end,” he concluded in English.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Finance Minister Bezalel
Smotrich seen during a press conference, at the Prime Minister's office
in Jerusalem, on January 25, 2023. (credit: YONATAN SINDEL/FLASH90)In Hebrew, Netanyahu addressed the comments as well, writing: "It is important that Finance Minister Smotrich clarified that he had no intention of harming the innocent or of [carrying out] collective punishment. I know his positions and they were reflected in his clarification. None of us are infallible, including foreign diplomats."
In a follow-up tweet, he added that "Israel's policy is clear: fight aggressively against terrorists and supporters of terrorism, avoid harming innocents and collective punishment.
"Until this moment, the Palestinian Authority has not condemned the murder of the two wonderful brothers, Yagel and Hallel Yaniv, and I regret that there are those in the international community who rushed to condemn Israel but have not yet demanded this necessary condemnation from the Palestinian Authority.
"While Minister Smotrich clarified his position, I am still waiting to hear a condemnation from the Palestinian Authority for the murder of the Yaniv brothers."
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu
The Prime Minister spoke up after Smotrich during a heated and prolonged interview with Channel 12 said that his words were “incorrect” and were “a slip of the tongue” in the emotional and heated aftermath of the killing of the two Yaniv brothers.
Listeners should have known not to take those words literally, Smotrich said, adding that only someone with a “fevered mind” would impinge that “I or anyone in Israel would desire to harm innocent people.”
Smotrich clarified that he had meant to underscore that the IDF should be “more proactive and aggressive in the fight against terrorism because people here are being murdered here.”
In the aftermath of the killing of the Yaniv brothers, residents of Huwara set off fireworks and handed out sweets, Smotrich charged, adding that residents of that town were involved in terror attacks against Israelis.
Smotrich, who is also a minister in the Defense Ministry, is tasked with oversight for civilian life in Area C of the West Bank, including oversight of Huwara.
A RESIDENT OF Huwara walks on Monday among cars burnt by settlers
avenging the terror attack that claimed the Yaniv brothers a day
earlier. (credit: AMMAR AWAD/REUTERS)The Huwara incident was a“very serious” incident of “nationalistic crime” and citizens should not be allowed to take the law into their own hands as they did there, Smotrich said, as he clarified that he did not view it as an act of terror.
One has to be careful with the terror designation, Snotrich explained, because Israeli demonstrators who blocked roads and who acted violently toward the police could also be considered to be carrying out “acts of terror.”
Smotrich's US tensions
Smotrich’s words on Huwara have been roundly condemned by the international community with the Israeli media reporting that the US is weighing whether to block his entry to the United States next week in light of his plans to address the Israel Bonds group.
US State Department spokesman Ned Price last week characterized Smotrich’s statement on Huwara as disgusting. According to Channel 12, US Ambassador to Israel Tom Nides said that Smotrich’s words were “stupid” and if he could, he would “throw Smotrich out of the plane” as he flew to the US.
Smotrich tweeted in response late Saturday night, “I am not angry with the @USAmbIsrael. I am convinced he did not mean to incite to kill me when he said that I should be thrown from the plane, just as I did not mean harm to innocents when I said that Huwara should be wiped out. People sometimes use harsh expressions that they don't mean [to be taken literally] to convey a harsh message. It happens to everyone.”
Smotrich had initially issued his words about Huwara during a public interview on March 1 at a conference organized by the Israeli business news organization The Marker. He said, “I think that Huwara needs to be wiped out, but the State of Israel needs to do it, most certainly not private citizens.”
It followed his decision to press like on a tweet by the Samaria Regional Council head David Ben-Zion who had written that the town of Huwara had to be “erased."
Tovah Lazaroff, Jerusalem Post Staff
Source: https://www.jpost.com/israel-news/article-733389
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