📰 Volltext
tags: [palestine]
📝 Zusammenfassung
Amos Schocken (Haaretz-Verleger): Der IGH sucht Haftbefehl gegen Smotrich - dieser gesteht in einer Pressekonferenz offen seine Kriegsverbrechen: 100 neue Siedlungen, 160 Aussenposten, 250.000 Acres. Schocken analysiert die eingestandene Apartheid, Vertreibung und den Siedler-Terror. Smotrichs Partei 'Religioeser Zionismus' sei eine Beleidigung des Zionismus und des Judentums.
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tags: [palestine]
📰 Volltext (Haaretz) - Amos Schocken, 5. Juni 2026
In a world in which the UN and international law have replaced God, who permits Smotrich and Israel to commit a genocide against Palestinians and deprive them of freedom, justice and peace?
In response to the news that the International Criminal Court in The Hague is seeking a confidential arrest warrant against him, in connection with Jewish terror in the West Bank as well as his support for bringing Jews to live in the occupied territories and for the apartheid policy there, Bezalel Smotrich held a news conference in which he effectively admitted openly to crimes:
"During my tenure, I did not make noise. I simply acted. I have been privileged to lead a revolution in the cradle of our biblical, eternal homeland, in Judea and Samaria. This is our land, and we will act in it like landlords. Over the past three and a half years we have done so, and I am proud to have led this dramatic change. We have established more than 100 new communities, together with 160 farm outposts that are preserving over 250,000 acres of state land. We are planning, building, paving roads, regulating and making the pioneering settlement enterprise irreversible."
Smotrich ignores, of course, the fact that all of the land that Israel conquered in 1967 is within the borders of the Arab state outlined in the United Nations 1947 partition plan. The Palestinians are entitled to them, and Israel must recognize this.
Smotrich went on to blame the Palestinian Authority for the alleged ICC warrant, while wrongly accusing it, as is his wont, of being a terrorist organization: "The hands are the hands of The Hague and the voice is the voice of the PA, a terrorist organization that is mistakenly called the Palestinian Authority." This, despite the fact that when Mahmoud Abbas became the Palestinian president, 20 years ago, he said that he is against violence and that his path is political, and in his years as president he has never initiated a terrorist act.
Smotrich, as is customary in Gush Emunim, wants to use the ICC reported move to expand the settlement enterprise. "The Palestinian Authority has started a war, and it will get a war," he said, adding, "Immediately upon the conclusion of my remarks here, we will sign an order to evacuate Khan al-Ahmar, in the framework of my powers as a minister in the Defense Ministry." And, in case anyone thought he would end there, Smotrich went on to say, "I promise all our enemies, this is just the beginning" - an appropriate (anti-)Zionist response.
The settlement enterprise is open about its criminal intentions. An announcement in the Makor Rishon newspaper (May 21) stated: "We are currently acting to restore the control of our nations lands to our legal hands and to cancel the Oslo Accords. The open areas in Judea and Samaria, and in particular Areas A and B ... are a significant force in the struggle against a Palestinian state." The ad makes no mention of the Palestinian population; what will become of it? The UN Charter states that territory cannot be acquired by force.
The ad makes it clear that the settlement enterprise does not distinguish between settlers and soldiers: "A Jewish settler who works the land, tends flocks or plants vineyards is equivalent to a combat battalion and creates an additional line of defense for all of Israel." The final line adds: "Israels sovereignty, future, history and security begin with settlement."
The revolution initiated by Smotrich in the past three and a half years constitutes terror attacks on Palestinians by settlers, some of them armed, and soldiers and police officers who cooperate with them. This violence includes attacks on Palestinian homes and property, the expulsion of Palestinians from their homes without taking responsibility for their future and instances of killing.
Smotrich leads this terror enterprise together with Itamar Ben-Gvir, with the support of the government and its head, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. Concurrently, these criminals are enacting a death penalty for terrorism that would apply only to Palestinians. The world, and presumably the ICC as well, is watching what Israel does in the West Bank.
Even if Smotrich is right, and it was a PA complaint to the court that triggered its alleged request for an arrest warrant, such a move is consistent with what Abbas said when he became Palestinian president: that he opposes violence and will act only through diplomacy. It is the Israeli government that has prevented him from pursuing the normal diplomatic path of negotiations. No member of the current government has met with him. This makes The Hague an entirely legitimate option.
His party name - Religious Zionism - is an insult to Zionism, which no one ever dreamed would maintain a brutal apartheid regime for longer than apartheid existed in South Africa. The name is also an insult to Judaism.
In its Declaration of Independence, Israel promised to be a state based on freedom, justice and peace, as envisaged by the prophets of Israel. Where do we find any of this in the despicable rampages of Smotrich and his enterprise? In a world in which the UN and international law have replaced God (who, together with Joshua Bin Nun, devised a genocide against the lands inhabitants that Smotrich seeks to emulate), who permits Smotrich and Israel to do this to the Palestinians and to deprive them of freedom, justice and peace?
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tags: [palestine]