Far-right minister expresses support for resettling Gaza, says October 7 wouldn’t have happened had it not been for 2005 disengagement from Strip
Aug 5, 2024
Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich implied on Monday that he believes blocking humanitarian aid to the Gaza Strip is “justified and moral” even if it causes two million civilians to die of hunger, but the international community won’t allow that to happen.
“We bring in aid because there is no choice,” Smotrich said at a conference in Yad Binyamin hosted by the right-wing Israel Hayom outlet. “We can’t, in the current global reality, manage a war. Nobody will let us cause 2 million civilians to die of hunger, even though it might be justified and moral, until our hostages are returned.
“Humanitarianism in exchange for humanitarianism is morally justified — but what can we do? We live today in a certain reality, we need international legitimacy for this war.”
Smotrich asserted that barring humanitarian aid from Gaza was more likely to get all the hostages being held by Hamas released, as opposed to the current hostage-for-ceasefire deal that is being negotiated and only ensures the release of some.
“Everyone wants to bring the hostages back, but the deal only gets a minority of hostages and condemns the majority and therefore it’s not right and not moral and it endangers the nation,” he said, adding that he was against releasing terrorists from Israeli prisons in exchange for hostages.
He claimed that Hamas plundering the aid that is sent in is the “main factor” extending the war.
The far-right minister said that while he supports Israel resettling Gaza, he hasn’t demanded that this be defined as one of the war’s goals. He argued, though, that if Israel hadn’t pulled out of Gaza in 2005, the October 7 massacre would never have happened.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has said it is unrealistic to resettle Gaza, angering far-right allies.
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