Smotrich yearns for genocide; Gaza yearns for food

Muhammad Amin

Israeli finance minister Bezalel Smotrich has made headlines saying there’s nothing wrong with starving two million Palestinians to death. Now, he’s grabbing hold of their money while they starve, saying the money’s needed to compensate Israeli “victims of  terrorism”.

He says he’s withholding 100 million shekels ($26 million) in tax funds intended for the Palestinian Authority as “part of measures to combat terrorism.”

Smotrich accused the Palestinian Authority, which administers parts of the Israeli-occupied West Bank, of transferring the funds to the “families of terrorists,” referring to Palestinians killed or detained at the hands of occupation forces for carrying out Resistance operations.

It’s the fifth instance of withholding funds, which “Israel” collects on behalf of Palestinians.

Smotrich indicated Monday that withholding the funds was part of a strategy to prevent the establishment of a Palestinian state as well as increasing illegal settlement activity in the occupied West Bank.

“We are working on the ground to remove this threat (of a Palestinian state) … by strengthening settlement through construction, … fighting the terror funds of the Palestinian Authority and its leaders, and maintaining complete Israeli control over the area,” he wrote on X.

Following the start of the ongoing Israeli war on the Gaza Strip on October 7, “Israel” has imposed economic restrictions on the Palestinian Authority, often withholding the tax revenues.

He claimed blocking humanitarian aid to the Gaza Strip was “justified and moral,” even if it leads to the starvation of 2 million civilians, Israeli media reported.

He bewailed the international community, saying it would not permit such an outcome.

“We are bringing in aid because there is no choice,” he said.

“We can’t, in the current global reality, manage a war. Nobody will let us cause 2 million civilians to die of hunger even though it might be justified and moral until our hostages are returned,” he whined