Far-right Israeli minister Bezalel Smotrich announced approval for 3,401 new homes in the controversial E1 area project in the occupied West Bank.

Israeli far-right Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich has said plans to build more than 3,000 homes in a controversial settlement project in the occupied West Bank will “bury the idea of a Palestinian state”.

The so-called E1 project between Jerusalem and the Maale Adumim settlement has been frozen for decades amid fierce opposition internationally. Building there would effectively cut off the West Bank from occupied East Jerusalem and significantly obstruct its territorial contiguity.

Smotrich said it would thwart the idea of a Palestinian state “because there is nothing to recognise and no one to recognise”.

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“This is Zionism at its best - building, settling and strengthening our sovereignty in the Land of Israel.”

  • DandomRude@lemmy.worldEnglish
    21·
    2 days ago

    And any halfway decent human being would say that this minister is a monster who belongs behind bars for the rest of its miserable life.

    • BertramDitore@lemmy.zipEnglish
      14·
      2 days ago

      Smotrich would be considered a terrorist pretty much anywhere else. He’s a huge bigoted piece of shit.

      According to former Shin Bet deputy chief Yitzhak Ilan, who interrogated him at the time, during the protests against the Israeli disengagement from Gaza, Smotrich was arrested in 2005 while in possession of 700 litres of gasoline on suspicion of participating in an attempt to blow up Ayalon Highway, a major arterial road. He was held in jail for three weeks but not charged after refusing to speak. This account was corroborated by Dvir Kariv, who was an agent with Shin Bet at the time.

      In 2006 he helped organize the “Beast Parade” as part of protests against a gay pride parade in Jerusalem, although he later admitted regret at the incident.

      He is co-founder of the NGO Regavim, which monitors and pursues legal action in the Israeli court system against constructions undertaken by Palestinians, Bedouins, and other Arabs in Israel and the West Bank without Israeli permits.

      -from his Wikipedia

      • DandomRude@lemmy.worldEnglish
        8·
        2 days ago

        I think that pretty much applies to all members of the Israeli government. Take Netanyahu, for example, who not only has had an arrest warrant issued against him by the International Criminal Court for ages, but is also on trial for massive corruption, which is why he is interested in maintaining the state of war for as long as possible, even though it is not a war, of course, but genocide. But Netanyahu doesn’t care; he’s just trying to delay his trial—which is typical of this regime: they are criminals who will literally walk over dead bodies.

        • kreskin@lemmy.worldEnglish
          8·
          2 days ago

          Polls show its the government and the vast majority of the population as well.
          87% supporting continuing the gaza “operation”. 85% support the job Netenyahu has been doing. 56% want to deport every non-jewish person currently living inside Israel-- just in everyday israel. 48% want to kill every living thing in gaza and the west bank. Just murder everyone.

          We should stop pretending this is a problem of just a few war criminals. Its millions of war criminals.

        • mrdown@lemmy.worldEnglish
          5·
          2 days ago

          I don’t like that excuse. Everybody know this is an iligitimate war.The court has no obligation to believe netenyahu and delay his trial

          • DandomRude@lemmy.worldEnglish
            4·
            2 days ago

            Oh, don’t get me wrong: he is certainly a racist monster but I don’t think he puts anything else above his own interests.

      • mrdown@lemmy.worldEnglish
        5·
        2 days ago

        He is part of the israeli government, the israeli government are financing those settlements so the sanctions should be on israel itself. Israel deserve cuba like sanctions