Kan reporter Asaf Liberman reported on Tuesday that National Union head, Betzalel Smotrich said: “I have no opposition to the planned Palestinian home construction in Area C“. “We have an obligation to the Palestinians that lived there before 1994”.
בצלאל סמוטריץ’ אינו מביע התנגדות לתכנית לבניה פלסטינית בשטח C. “יש לנו מחויבות לפלסטינים שחיו במקום לפני 94′” #קלמןליברמן @gilicohen10 @carmeldangor
— אסף ליברמן (@asaf_lib) July 30, 2019
Area C is the only section of Judea and Samaria that falls under Israeli full Israeli military control.
This announcement came as a shock to many on the Israeli right as Smotrich is known to be among the most hawkish of all current right-wing MKs. That’s because Smotrich has been the only current Knesset member who has come out in favor of total Israeli sovereignty over all of Judea and Samaria including areas A,B and C.
This tweet came on the heels of a report showing that Prime Minister Netanyahu is promoting construction in Area C. According to the report, Government ministers discussed approving construction plans for Arabs in Area C.
Ironically, Regavim, the organization of whom Smotrich was one of the original founders, has strongly condemned the planned construction.
“We demand that the state of Israel enforce the law that has allowed 30,000 new illegal structures to be built in Area C since the publication of the Fayyad plan since 2009” Regavim said in a statement. “State land is being taken over by the Palestinian Authority while settlement blocks are being disconnected which means that there nothing left to negotiate” the organization added.
A source familiar with the details told Arutz Sheva that the parliamentarians demonstrating the most resistance to the decision are Yoav Galant and Ze’ev Elkin from the Likud, not Betzalel Smotrich.
Back in 2016, he ruffled many feathers on the right when he announced that he would not want his wife to share a birth recovery room with an Arab in the hospital.
The 39-year-old politician is also one of the few to invoke God into his professional life. This was highlighted by a statement that he made saying: “I work for God, “not Netanyahu.
