JERUSALEM:
Top ministers in Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s government rejected Palestinian statehood on Thursday after the Washington Post reported that Israel’s main ally, the United States, was advancing plans to establish a Palestinian state.
“We will in no way agree to this plan, which says that the Palestinians deserve a prize for the terrible slaughter they have committed against us: a Palestinian state with Jerusalem as its capital,” said Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich.
“A Palestinian state is an existential threat to the state of Israel, as was demonstrated on October 7,” he said, adding that he would demand the security cabinet, which is due to meet later on Thursday, take a clear position against the Palestinian state.
The Washington Post reported Thursday that the United States is working with a number of Arab countries, including Egypt, Jordan, the United Arab Emirates, Qatar and Saudi Arabia — with which Israel has long sought to establish diplomatic ties — on a post-war plan for the region that would include a firm timetable for the establishment of a Palestinian state.
Also read: Saudi Arabia: No ties with Israel without recognition of Palestinian state
The Palestinian Foreign Ministry said any political initiative that did not begin with a Palestinian state as a full member of the United Nations was “doomed to failure.”
In separate statements to Smotrich were National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir, Diaspora Affairs Minister Amichai Chikli, Education Minister Yoav Kisch and lawmaker Matan Kahana, a member of the National Unity Party led by Netanyahu’s main rival, Benny Gantz.
“This is a disaster, to reward the Palestinians after October 7 with the establishment of a state,” Chikli of Netanyahu’s Likud party told Army Radio.
Read: US says ‘no way’ to resolve Gaza conflict without Palestinian state
The latest war in Gaza erupted on October 7 when Hamas led an attack on towns in southern Israel in which Israeli authorities say 1,200 people were killed and 253 were taken hostage.
In the more than 130 days since then, Israel has killed more than 28,600 Palestinians, according to Palestinian health authorities, in a relentless air, land and sea assault that has devastated much of Gaza and displaced most of the 2.3 million of its population.
Millions of Palestinians live under varying degrees of Israeli rule, but only a fraction are citizens. The Palestinian Authority has for years called for an end to Israel’s occupation and settlement expansion in the West Bank – among territories Israel seized in the 1967 Middle East war – where it wants to form a state that includes East Jerusalem and Gaza .
Palestinians and the international community for the most part consider the settlements illegal. Israel disputes this, citing historical, biblical and political ties to the West Bank and East Jerusalem.
a href=”https://tribune.com.pk/story/2456567/top-israeli-ministers-reject-palestinian-statehood-as-part-of-post-war-plan”>Source link
