BERLIN (DPA, CONVERSEER) – The president of the German-Israeli Society in Berlin has strongly criticized the far-right members of Israel’s government for comments he says amount to calls for “ethnic cleansing” in Gaza.
“My job to defend Israel is becoming more and more difficult because there are voices in the Israeli government which are totally unacceptable,” Volker Beck said in an interview with the Israeli television channel Kan, which is to be aired on Friday.
“If ministers are calling for starving the population in Gaza, or for ‘sending them abroad,’ which is nothing else than ethnic cleansing, this makes our task very difficult,” he added.
The 64-year-old, a well-known supporter of Israel, was referring to recent statements by far-right Israeli Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich and National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir.
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Smotrich recently said he wants Gaza “completely destroyed” and that residents should be concentrated in a “humanitarian zone” in the far south of the coastal territory. From there, he said, they should leave Gaza in large numbers for other countries.
Ben-Gvir spoke out against the resumption of humanitarian aid deliveries to the Gaza Strip after Israel’s blockade.
The Israeli government rejects the accusation of ethnic cleansing and maintains that the military operations in the Gaza Strip are aimed at destroying the infrastructure of the Palestinian Islamist group Hamas.
When asked by Kan what message he had for the two ministers, Beck said: “I would ask them to stop the racist talk to all Palestinians, and make it clear that Israel is fighting Hamas, and not Arabs.”