THE United States has condemned Israel’s national security minister Itamar Ben Gvir for claiming his rights in the occupied West Bank are more important than those of Palestinians, BBC News reported.
The State Department said it strongly condemned the “inflammatory comments” and “all racist rhetoric”.
“My right, and that of my wife and children, to travel on the roads of Judea and Samaria, is more important than the freedom of movement of Arabs,” he told the state television, using Israel’s term for the West Bank. His remarks have since sparked a storm of criticism online.
He has since called the coverage “fake news” and attacked the “radical left” for “misquoting” him.
On X (previously Twitter), he also launched a scathing attack on the Palestinian-American model Bella Hadid for reposting a clip of his comments, calling her an “Israel hater” who made him look “racist and dark”.
Ms Hadid had reposted the video on Instagram where she has 60 million followers, adding the comment: “In no place, no time… should one life be more valuable than another’s.”
The remarks also drew sharp criticism from the Palestinian Authority, which described them as “racist and heinous” and labelled the minister a “fascist”.
Ben Gvir leads the ultranationalist Otzma Yehudit or “Jewish Power” party which espouses racist, anti-Arab policies. He has previous convictions for inciting racism and supporting terrorism.
In December he was made a top minister by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who gave him a seat in his security cabinet and put him in charge of the domestic police, as well as Israel’s militarised border police force that operates in occupied East Jerusalem and the West Bank.
His comments on Wednesday came amid spiralling violence in which Palestinian gunmen killed three Israelis in separate attacks, including one close to the West Bank city of Hebron, where Ben Gvir lives in a Jewish settlement.
It led to even further restrictions on movement for hundreds of thousands of Palestinians as Israeli forces searched for the gunmen.
However, Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu has expressed support for the firebrand Ben Gvir, according to AFP.
On Friday, Netanyahu threw his weight behind the minister, saying: “Israel allows maximum freedom of movement in Judea and Samaria for both Israelis and Palestinians.
“Unfortunately, Palestinian terrorists take advantage of this freedom of movement to murder Israeli women, children, and families,” a statement from his office said.
The statement said recent attacks have resulted in “special security measures in these areas”.
“This is what minister Ben Gvir meant when he said ‘the right to life precedes freedom of movement’,” it added.
The statement came days after a settler was killed in a drive-by shooting in the West Bank near the Palestinian city of Hebron.
At least 219 Palestinians have been killed in violence linked to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict so far this year.
The violence has also claimed the lives of 31 Israelis, a Ukrainian and an Italian, according to an AFP tally compiled from official sources on both sides.
Published in Dawn, August 27th, 2023
