Far-right Smotrich apologizes to Army for saying Israel should "raze" Huwara, West Bank

MADRID, 9 Mar. (EUROPA PRESS) -

Israel's Finance Minister, the far-right Bezalel Smotrich, has apologized to the Army for statements he made a week ago in which he stated that the West Bank city of Huwara, the scene of an attack by settlers, should be razed.

Smotrich has indicated that he did not realize that his call on the government to "raze" a Palestinian village would be interpreted as a military order. As he has pointed out, the interpretation of his comment led dozens of pilots to join protests against judicial reform and threaten not to report for reserve duty.

The minister has expressed, through a long post on Facebook, that his apology is due to the fact that a friend of his from the Israeli Air Force expressed "anxiety" about this violent rhetoric, a feeling he shared with many members of the Forces. Israeli navies who fear having to take this action.

"I really did not think that someone serious would be able to understand from my words a call to indiscriminately kill women and children in the town," he wrote on his social network profile.

In this sense, he added that when his comments have been interpreted by "good, intelligent, serious and dedicated people who dedicate the best years of their lives to the security of Israel", hearing that "such terrible intentions are attributed to him", he cannot "consoling yourself by blaming others." "I am forced to make an examination of conscience," she added.

However, Smotrich has insisted that the idea of ​​indiscriminately eradicating all the people never crossed his mind, justifying that "the furthest some could take their words" was to the destruction of property, not human.

Likewise, in the statement, he stated that the media were trying to "create a distorted interpretation" by maintaining a "false and biased campaign" against him and the current government.

The politician, who heads the far-right Religious Zionism party, is in charge of the body that authorizes the construction of settlements and the demolition of Palestinian homes in much of the West Bank, including Huwara, where approximately 7,000 Palestinians live, reports 'The Times of Israel'.