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Israeli National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir has called for the assassination of top Palestinian Authority officials and the detention and torture of Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas if international authorities take further steps to advance Palestinian statehood.
In remarks at a meeting of the far right Otzma Yehudit party reported by Israeli media, Ben-Gvir said that there is no such thing as a “Palestinian,” and condemned the U.S.’s UN Security Council resolution that is up for a vote on Monday, which suggests there may be a “credible pathway” for Palestinian statehood.
“A ‘Palestinian’ state of the ‘invented people’ who call themselves ‘Palestinian’ must never be established, because the aspiration of those seeking to establish such a state is to build it on the ruins of the State of Israel,” Ben-Gvir said, per Times of Israel.
“If they accelerate the recognition of the Palestinian terrorist state, and the UN recognises a Palestinian state, targeted assassinations of senior Palestinian Authority officials, who are terrorists for all intents and purposes, should be ordered,” he went on.
There must also be an arrest put out for Abbas, he said, adding: “There is a solitary confinement cell ready for him in Ketziot Prison.”
Israel has a long history of assassinating Palestinian leaders, including the killings of numerous Hamas leaders amid the Gaza genocide and for decades beforehand.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu also reiterated Israel’s opposition to a pathway for a Palestinian state on Sunday, and once again threatened to resume Israel’s brutal assaults in Gaza if Hamas doesn’t agree to disarm. “Either this will happen the easy way, or it will happen the hard way,” he said in a meeting with his cabinet.
Israel’s opposition is despite the plan containing major concessions in favor of Israel, giving the state wide latitude over the control of Gaza. The plan says that “conditions may be in place for a credible pathway to Palestinian self-determination and statehood” given that the Palestinian Authority is reformed and for Gaza “redevelopment has advanced.”
The proposal outlines the establishment of an international deployment force of 20,000 troops to demilitarize Gaza and establish an international “Board of Peace,” headed by Trump, to oversee the implementation of Trump’s 20-point plan. It was written without Palestinian input, and has been heavily criticized by Palestinian officials and advocates for Palestinian rights.
Hamas and other Palestinian factions have called the plan “a new attempt to impose another form of occupation on our land and people, and to legitimise foreign trusteeship.”
Critics have said that the resolution is written to grant the U.S. and Israel more control over Gaza, and that the “Board of Peace” is effectively a colonial governing body rather than true leadership by and for Palestinians.
Russia, a member of the UN Security Council with veto power, has put forth its own counter proposal that does not include an international troop deployment or the “Board of Peace.” “The objective of our draft is to enable the Security Council to develop a balanced, acceptable, and unified approach toward achieving a sustainable cessation of hostilities,” Russia said.
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