The US State Department and Jewish groups from around the world have slammed Israel’s far-right Minister of Finance Bezalel Smotrich for comments he made this week calling for the West Bank town of Huwara to be “wiped out”.
Mr Smotrich, who is one of the most senior members of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s coalition government, was asked on Wednesday during a finance conference about why he had “liked” a now-deleted Tweet on Sunday by Samaria Regional Council deputy major Davidi Ben Zion that called on Israel to “wipe out the village of Huwara today.”
He responded: “Because I think the village of Huwara needs to be wiped out. I think the State of Israel should do it, not, God forbid, private individuals.”
In response to the murder of Israeli brothers Hillel and and Yagel Yaniv on Sunday, Huwara - which is home to upwards of 7,000 Palestinians - became the scene of intense Jewish settler violence later that day in which over 75 homes and 100 cars were set ablaze.
The Board of Deputies of British Jews Tweeted: “We utterly condemn Bezalel Smotrich’s comments calling for the State of Israel to ‘erase’ a village which days ago was attacked by Israeli settlers. We hope that this and similar comments will be publicly repudiated by responsible voices in the governing coalition.”
Israel’s Opposition leader and former Prime Minister Yair Lapid immediately condemned Smotrich, who is the leader of Israel’s Religious Zionist Party, and branded his comments as “incitement to war crimes.”
The United States strongly condemned the comments, with US spokesperson Ned Price saying Wednesday: “I want to be very clear about this – these comments were irresponsible. They were repugnant. They were disgusting. And just as we condemn Palestinian incitement to violence, we condemn these provocative remarks that also amounts to incitement to violence.”
Mr Price added, “We call on Prime Minister Netanyahu and other senior Israeli officials to publicly and clearly reject and disavow these comments.”
Smotrich walked back his comments on Thursday, tweeting: “For the avoidance of doubt, in my words I did not mean to wipe out the village of Huwara, but only to act in a targeted manner against the terrorists and supporters of terrorism within it and to exact a heavy price from them in order to restore security to the residents of the area.”
Despite his attempts to backtrack, Smotrich’s words directly translated as “the village of Huvara should be wiped out”, and not “we need to act in a targeted manner against the territories and the supporters of terrorism in it.”
He was appointed Minister of Finance following Israel’s 2022 legislative elections in November where his party joined Benjamin Netanyahu’s successful right-wing coalition. He has been at the helm of the Religious Zionist Party since 2021.
Smotrich, who once proclaimed himself a “fascist homophobe”, has made numerous controversial remarks during his career. He is a vocal supporter of expanding Israeli settlements in the West Bank and opposes Palestinian statehood.
He has been accused of inciting hatred against Israel’s Arab citizens, and lives in an Israeli settlement in the West Bank that is illegal under international law.
The UK Foreign Office has been approached for comment.
