Today, Saturday, Israeli Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich retracted his statements about “erasing” the Palestinian town of Hawara in the West Bank, describing it as a “slip of the tongue.”
The Times of Israel quoted Smotrich, the leader of the far-right religious Zionist party, as saying that he “mischose” his words about Hawara, noting that his remarks came out amid “a surge of feelings.”
But the Israeli minister refused to consider what happened from the settlers, their storming of Hawara and setting fire to homes and cars, as “terrorism”.
Smotrich said the storming of Hawara in Nablus, in the West Bank, represented “a very serious national crime, but it is not terrorism.”
And the Minister of Finance said in early March that the town of Hawara, which witnessed the killing of two Israelis in an attack last Sunday, should be “erased”, adding, “I think that the State of Israel should be the one who erases it, not ordinary people.”