US shouldn’t preach morality to Israel, Smotrich says in backing Ben-Gvir

The United States is in no position to go after Israel on human rights issues given how its army acted in Iraq and Afghanistan, Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich (Religious Zionist Party) said.

“The US shouldn’t be preaching to Israel about morality,” Smotrich told Army Radio as pushed back at the Biden administration’s attack against National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir (Otzam Yehudit).

Ben-Gvir came under fire for pushing for additional restrictions on Palestinian freedom of movement in the West Bank after three Israelis were killed in two terrorist attacks last week.

In an interview with Channel 12 last week, Ben-Gvir said, “My right and that of my wife and my children, to travel on the roads in Judea and Samaria, is more important than the freedom of movement for Arabs.”

The European Union and the US State Department condemned his words, with the State Department calling it “racist rhetoric.” Other critics said it was proof that Israel was in fact an apartheid state.

Smotrich said that Ben-Gvir had said “something very simple, in a very simple context, Our right to life overrides freedom of movement.”

When one has to choose between those two realities and those two sets of rights, then this is the choice, he explained. 

“Unfortunately, terrorists are exploiting the freedom of movement to kill Jews,” he said, adding that as a result security restrictions have been put in place. 

“There is no other nation that has waged a more careful war of survival against murderous terror for scores of decades than the Jewish nation,” he said. 

Minister defends Ben-Gvir: Israel isn't an apartheid, Palestinians in West Bank are like prisoners

Heritage Minister Amichai Eliyahu (Otzma Yehudit Party) got into hot water on Sunday when he defended Ben Gvir by comparing Palestinians in the West Bank to prisoners in a jail.

“In a prison, I take a human being, deny him his civil rights so that the rest of society will be run in a better way,” he told Hebrew language news outlet Ynet when interviewed by their studio.

“The moment a person threatens my right to life, I reduce his rights slightly and allow the normative person to operate,” he said.

Journalist Attila Somfalvi pushed him on the point, noting that for some this was “apartheid?”

Eliyahu said, “What apartheid? We are talking about prison.”

Somfalvi asked, “What prison? You are referencing the territories. Are you saying Judea and Samaria is a prison?”

Eliyahu retorted, “When you go to a prison and there is a prisoner there, you reduce his rights, is that apartheid?”

“Why don’t we open our borders so that anyone who wants to come here from Egypt and Lebanon can enter?

“When there is a hostile population that carries out thousands of terrorist attacks and does not block them, then I say with great regret, I will slightly reduce the rights of those people who harm us, so that normal people can continue to drive on the roads,” Eliyahu explained.

“This is a well-known democratic logic. Once the Arabs lay down their weapons, then there will be peace here and they will be able to drive freely.”

MK Ahmad Tibi (Hadash Ta’al) retorted on X, previously Twitter, “Shame, it continues: Another racist but frank minister from Ben-Gvir’s party: Minister Amihai Eliyahu compares the occupied West Bank to a prison but explains that “prisons are not apartheid.”

Prior to the government meeting on Sunday, Ben-Gvir doubled down on his statements and attacked the Left for supposedly helping the Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions Movement slander Israel.

“It turns out that the extreme left in Israel has no borders and in order to harm Itamar Ben-Gvir they are ready to discredit Israel around the world, twist things, give fuel to BDS,” he said. “I repeat and I will also fight and fight for what I say, and it is very simple – the right to life prevails over the right to freedom of movement, I said it and I continue to say it.”