Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – Jordan’s al-Ghad [Tomorrow] newspaper reports from occupied East Jerusalem that on Friday the extremist Israeli Minister of National Security, Itamar Bin-Gvir called on Israeli squatters on the Palestinian West Bank to take over the territory and to settle it with support from the far right-wing government.
Ben-Gvir made the remarks at the illegal Evyatar squatter settlement near the Palestinian hamlet of Beeta south of Nablus.
All Israeli squatter settlements on occupied Palestinian territory are illegal in international law, but even Israel considers some of them illegal. Most squatters build on land usurped by the Israeli state. But some just invade the West Bank and set up homes on privately owned Palestinian land. Evyatar is in the latter category.
Ben-Gvir said that it is incumbent on the Israeli government to kill dozens, or hundreds, or even thousands of Palestinians, so as to stabilize the security situation. He called the Palestinians “terrorists.”
Addressing hundreds of Israeli squatters who returned to the site the previous night with no opposition from the Israeli army, he said, “My position is well known, and I grant you complete support and cover. A complete settlement must be built here, and on every surrounding hill. The country must be settled in parallel with movement toward a military operation that will include the destruction of [Palestinian] buildings and the purge of terrorists, not one or two, but dozens and hundreds and if necessary we must kill thousands.”
He continued, “At the end of the day, this is our land and we will cling to it and we will return security to its inhabitants. The land of Israel is for the people of Israel. You have our complete support, so advance on the hills, and settle. We love you.”