Hamas condemns Israeli minister’s ‘racist’ remarks 

The head of the Hamas Political Bureau has slammed the “racist” remarks made by Israeli Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich in which he denied the existence of Palestinians as a people in the historic land of Palestine.

“The racist statements made by Smotrich and the use of a map portraying Jordan as part of the settler-occupation state during a talk in Paris reflect the colonial mentality of the Israeli occupation authorities,” said Ismail Haniyeh. “Such remarks indicate that both Palestine and Jordan face the same Israeli threat. As such, Palestine should organise a strategic dialogue with Jordan to fight the serious plans of the colonial-occupation state.”

An official statement from the movement said that Smotrich’s remarks demonstrate Israeli fascism and its stark violations of international law and the Palestinian people’s right to self-determination. “His comments clearly reflect the fascist policies of Israel’s colonial settlement expansion and forced eviction of the Palestinian people, upon which the occupation state was founded.”

Hamas called on the international community, and France in particular, to take a firm stand against the settler-occupation state and its racist finance minister, who had previously called for the Palestinian village of Huwara to be wiped out. The movement also called on the Arab states which normalised ties with the settler-colonial occupation to cut those ties and defend the Palestinian people’s right to freedom and self-determination.

READ: Smotrich remarks ‘wrong, disrespectful, dangerous, counterproductive’