Backlash over Bibi ‘ethnic cleansing’ claim
America is seething and other Western allies are said to be furious, after Benjamin Netanyahu claimed that calling for settlement withdrawal is tantamount to demanding “ethnic cleansing”.
JERUSALEM – America is seething and other Western allies are said to be furious, after Benjamin Netanyahu claimed that calling for settlement withdrawal is tantamount to demanding “ethnic cleansing”.
Netanyahu argued in an online video that the Palestinians’ demand for settlements to be removed and their residents to relocate within Israel’s internationally recognised borders is “outrageous”.
The Palestinian position would mean that a future Palestinian state would be free from Jews, and Netanyahu branded this as “outrageous” and “ethnic cleansing”.
He didn’t only direct his anger towards the Palestinian leadership, but also towards “otherwise enlightened countries” that promote the Palestinian demand, an apparent swipe at Western allies including the US and Australia.
Netanyahu suggested that this was like people in other countries wanting to rid themselves of certain minorities. “Since when is bigotry a foundation for peace?” he asked rhetorically.
Just hours after the video was released, US State Department spokeswoman Elizabeth Trudeau said that using this kind of terminology is “inappropriate and unhelpful”. American officials “strongly disagree” with the premise of the video and feel that it casts doubts on Israel’s intentions for the West Bank, Trudeau added.
The timing of the clash was awkward. On Tuesday the acting head of Israel’s National Security Council, Jacob Nagel, arrived in Washington DC to finalise America’s new military aid package to Israel. The clash did not impact the deal, which will see the US giving Israel an average of $US5 billion a year in military aid over the next decade in the most generous aid package Israel has received from the US, but it did hang a cloud over proceedings.
The Israeli left rushed to accuse Netanyahu of intentionally presenting reasoned objections to settlements on political grounds, and on the grounds of complications they pose to the -two-state solution, as anti-Jewish sentiment. Leading left-wing voices are saying that it is unwise to condemn Israel’s allies for opposing settlements, and Zionist Union legislator Tzipi Livni accused him of producing “videos that hurt our cause”.
Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas responded to the video by claiming that it is Israel who engages in “ethnic cleansing” and saying that it has become an isolated state. “The government of the occupation is isolated internationally because it does not want to progress even a step forward in the peace process,” he declared, repeating his position that Israeli intransigence is preventing new peace talks, a claim Jerusalem denies.
In West Bank settlements, leaders jumped to Netanyahu’s defence. Oded Revivi, mayor of Efrat, told The AJN that in his view, Netanyahu “was saying that if Israel is not thinking of having a Jewish state without Arabs, the demand of Abbas for a state with no Jewish people has a connotation of ethnic cleansing”.
Revivi insisted: “I don’t think it crossed a red line and I think some of the things said were completely blown out of proportion.”
NATHAN JEFFAY
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