Zionist Finance Minister makes provocative statements against Palestinians

OCCUPIED PALESTINE, Dec. 31 (YPA) – Israeli Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich on Sunday called for the return of Jewish settlers to the Gaza Strip after the end of the war, saying that Palestinians in the Strip should be “encouraged” to migrate to other countries.

In response to a question about the possibility of re-establishing settlements in the Gaza Strip, Smotrich said in an interview with Military Radio: “In order to achieve security, we have to control the Strip and in order to control it in the long term we need a civilian presence.”

Smotrich, who heads the Religious Zionist party, which is part of the ruling coalition government, said Israel should “encourage” Gaza’s roughly 2.4 million Palestinians to leave the territory.

“If we act strategically right and encourage immigration, if there are a hundred thousand or two hundred thousand Arabs in Gaza and not two million, the speech of the day after (the war) will be completely different.”

During a private visit to Paris in March, Smotrich denied the existence of Palestinians as individuals or as a people.

E.M