- US State Department spokesperson urged the Israeli PM to repudiate remarks.
- During an attack on Nablus last week, Israeli forces killed 11 Palestinians.
- Israeli Foreign minister made his comments just days after Israeli settlers attacked Huwara.
The United States has condemned a key Israeli minister for suggesting a Palestinian hamlet that had been attacked by settlers needs to be “wiped out”, calling his words “repugnant”.
US State Department spokesperson Ned Price also encouraged Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to “publicly and explicitly” repudiate remarks made by his Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich against the West Bank town of Huwara.
“These comments were irresponsible. They were repugnant. They were disgusting,” Price told reporters on Wednesday. “And just as we condemn Palestinian incitement to violence, we condemn these provocative remarks that also amount to incitement to violence.”
Smotrich, a far-right Israeli lawmaker who also manages civil administration in the occupied West Bank, made his comments just days after Israeli settlers attacked Huwara and set fire to hundreds of cars and homes.
“I think the village of Huwara needs to be wiped out. I think the state of Israel should do it,” Smotrich was quoted as saying by Israeli media outlets on Wednesday.
One Palestinian was killed in the settlers’ raid on Huwara, near Nablus, which occurred during a period of increased violence in Israel and the occupied Palestinian territories.
During an attack on Nablus last week, Israeli forces killed 11 Palestinians.
A Palestinian shooter killed two Israeli settlers on Sunday, while an Israeli-American motorist was killed earlier this week in a shooting attack in Jericho, deep inside the West Bank.
Price reiterated Washington’s desire for “equal measures of accountability for terrorist attacks whatever of the background of the perpetrators or the victims” on Wednesday.
Increasingly Critical
Israeli authorities had only arrested eight suspects out of hundreds who took part in the Huwara riot and had released all of them by Tuesday.
Washington has become increasingly critical of Netanyahu’s far-right government’s policies, especially the construction of Israeli settlements on occupied Palestinian territory.
Palestinian rights activists, on the other hand, have been pushing for tangible action from US President Joe Biden’s administration to deter further Israeli violations.
Israel receives at least $3.8 billion in American aid per year while being accused by top human rights organizations such as Amnesty International of implementing an apartheid system.
On Thursday, the advocacy group Democracy for the Arab World Now (DAWN) petitioned the State Department to put a visa suspension on Smotrich.
“The Biden Administration should not allow senior government officials inciting atrocities against Palestinian civilians to spread their violent and hateful rhetoric in the United States,” Sarah Leah Whitson, DAWN’s executive director, said in a statement.
“The ‘exceptional’ nature of the US-Israel relationship should have its limits, and banning Smotrich would send an important signal that the US will not tolerate such dangerous, reckless incitement to violence.”
Democracy for the Arab World Now
On Thursday, the advocacy group Democracy for the Arab World Now (DAWN) petitioned the State Department to put a visa suspension on Smotrich.
J Street, a Jewish-American organization that identifies itself as pro-Israel and pro-peace, called on Biden earlier this week to set “clear redlines and practical consequences” for Israeli government policies.
“Only then can the Biden Administration truly hope to halt the escalation of violence and terror, advance US interests, defend Israeli and Palestinian rights and lives, and help secure Israel’s future as a democracy,” J Street said in a statement on Monday.
Biden, a self-proclaimed Zionist, has repeatedly affirmed his “ironclad” commitment to Israel, dismissing calls for imposing conditions on US aid to the country.
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