EU calls on Israeli government to “distance itself” from extremist minister’s words legitimizing starvation in Gaza

Brussels – Letting die of hunger two million civilians in Gaza “might be justified and moral” until Israeli hostages held in the hands of the Palestinian terrorist group are returned to Israel. These are the words of the Israeli Finance Minister in the government of Benjamin Netanyahu, the religious extremist Bezalel Smotrich.  Words that are “beyond ignominious” that the EU condemns, urging Tel Aviv to “unequivocally” distance itself from them.

Speaking at the annual Katif Conference on Monday, Aug. 5, the leader of the Religious Zionism party said that Israel is allowing humanitarian aid into the Palestinian enclave simply because “we have no choice.” In his reasoning, Smotrich explained that Israel needs “international legitimacy to conduct this war,” and, therefore, “no one in the world will allow us to starve two million people, even though it might be justified and moral to free the hostages.”

This statement “demonstrates, once again, his contempt for international law and for basic principles of humanity,” the EU High Representative for Foreign Affairs, Josep Borrell, said with outrage. In the last few months alone, the Israeli minister piled up a series of statements that show fanatical and dangerous religious thinking: after the violence of Israeli settlers in the Palestinian village of Huwara, he stated that the town “should be obliterated;” he encouraged a “forced relocation of Palestinians from Gaza;” he claimed that “you cannot talk about the Palestinians because there is no such thing as a Palestinian people.” Smotrich, along with National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir, also strenuously opposed Joe Biden’s proposed plan to end the war in Gaza, threatening to bring down Netanyahu’s government.

Like the deportation of an entire population, “deliberate starvation of civilians is a war crime,” the EU diplomacy chief stressed. The Foreign Ministry of the Palestinian National Authority disclosed on X that it had asked the International Court of Justice to issue an arrest warrant for Smotrich because of his political statements.

In addition to urging Netanyahu to raise his voice against his minister, Borrell called on Israel to establish transparency on the reported acts of torture at Sde Teiman prison, the Israeli Guantanamo, in the Negev desert. “The EU continues urging Israel to implement the relevant UN Security Council resolutions and binding orders of the International Court of Justice and ensure full and unimpeded humanitarian access to cover the needs of scores of civilians, including hundreds of thousands of children, living in extremely dire conditions and exposed to famine and disease in Gaza,” the EU High Representative concluded.