Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu tweeted Sunday in response to a senior Israeli minister’s earlier call for a Palestinian town to be wiped out, calling the statements “inappropriate”.
“It is important for all of us to work on toning down the rhetoric and lowering the temperature,” Netanyahu wrote in English in a Twitter thread. “This includes speaking forcefully against inappropriate statements and even correcting our own statements when we mismouth or when our words are taken out of context.”
Netanyahu did not directly name Israeli Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich, who earlier singled out the town of Huwara after a Palestinian from the village shot and killed two Israelis in the West Bank last week.
“The village of Huwara must be wiped out. I think the state of Israel must do it – not, God forbid, private individuals,” Smotrich said.
STATE DEPARTMENT SCAMMED ISRAELI MINISTER FOR DESTROYING PALESTINIAN VILLAGE: “DISGUSTING”
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu tweeted Sunday in response to a senior Israeli minister’s earlier call for a Palestinian town to be wiped out, calling the statements “inappropriate”. (Abir Sultan/Pool photo via AP)
Smotrich later backtracked on his comments, saying he didn’t intend to cancel Huwara, but for Israel to operate surgically within it against Palestinian militants.
Netanyahu’s tweet did not condemn Smotrich, but instead implied that the minister had misspoke. Netanyahu continued in his thread by condemning “the silence of the international community” amid attacks between the Palestinian Authority and Israel.
“Keep turning a blind eye to the PA’s rampant incitement, the disgusting spectacle of Palestinians handing out sweets in celebration of terrorist attacks on Jews, and the PA’s official pay-to-kill policy, in which the PA pays terrorists to kill Jews The international community’s silence in the face of Palestinian support for terrorism must finally end,” Netanyahu wrote.
ISRAEL WITHDRAWS ARMY BATTALIONS AS MAJOR VIOLENCE STRIKES WEST BANK FOLLOWING MURDER OF ISRAELI BROTHERS
Israeli Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich had singled out the town of Huwara after a Palestinian from the village shot and killed two Israelis in the West Bank last week. (Kobi Wolf/Bloomberg via Getty Images)
The State Department also condemned Smotrich’s comments last week, also warning that both sides must allow tensions to ease after days of violence.
“These comments were irresponsible, they were repugnant, they were disgusting, and just as we condemn Palestinian incitement to violence, we condemn these provocative remarks which also amount to incitement to violence.” State Department spokesman Ned Price said in response to the comments.
Price also called on Netanyahu “and other top Israeli officials to publicly and clearly reject and disavow these comments.”
PALESTINIAN PYSTER SHOTS AND KILLS TWO ISRAELI BROTHERS IN THE WEST BANK
The State Department also condemned Smotrich’s comments last week, also warning that both sides must allow tensions to ease after days of violence. (Kevin Lamarque/Pool/AFP via Getty Images)
Price alluded to the violence that followed after the killing of the two Israelis, in which hundreds of Israelis retaliated by burning cars and houses.
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“We’ve seen too much violence, too much bloodshed,” Price said. “We strongly condemned and rejected the terrorist attacks that Israel has suffered in recent days.”
Peter Kasperowicz of Fox News and the Associated Press contributed to this report.
