In a joint letter, the Gulf Foreign Ministers denounced statements by Israeli Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich calling for the liquidation of the Palestinian city of Hawara and other statements in which the extremist minister denied the existence of a Palestinian people. In a letter to US Secretary of State Anthony Blinken, Gulf ministers called on the United States to “take responsibility in response to all measures and statements directed against the Palestinian people.” The Gulf ministers also called on the US administration to play its part in achieving a just, comprehensive and lasting solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict based on the principles of international law and the Arab Peace Initiative.
Jassim Muhammad al-Budaiwi, Secretary-General of the Gulf Cooperation Council, said the Council condemns “the escalation of statements and Israeli violations against the Palestinian people, including the recent crimes committed in the city and camp of Jenin, and in the cities of Hawara, Burin, Asirah al- Qibli and others who claimed the lives of a number of martyrs and dozens of wounded.
Far-right Minister Smotrich called last February for the razing of the Palestinian village of Hawara in the occupied West Bank following unprecedented settler attacks on the town that killed a Palestinian, dozens of others, and the burning and destruction of dozens of houses and cars after two settlers were killed in a shootout in the area. Israeli Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich, during his participation 10 days ago in an evening in Paris, denied the existence of the Palestinian people, saying it was “a fictitious invention that is no more than 100 years old.”
