Tel Aviv: An Israeli deputy minister was criticized on Thursday for calling residents of an unauthorized West Bank settlement checkpoint “inhumane”, sparking an outcry that underscored the fragility of Israel’s ideologically diverse coalition.
Jair Golan, a former deputy military chief and member of the Dowish Meretz party, had previously given a response to comments comparing the climate in Israel to Nazi-era Germany.
“These are not the people, these are the submen. The despicable people and the corruption of the Jewish people. They should not be given any support,” Golan told the Knesset channel. “This radical nationalist stampede will bring destruction upon us.”
Golan, who serves as deputy economy minister, was referring to settlers from an illegal outpost in the West Bank that had been evacuated as part of Israel’s 2005 withdrawal from the Gaza Strip, but where settlers has repeatedly rebuilt the structures.
The settlers and their supporters have also clashed with Palestinians from nearby villages. Golan said he was referring to settlers who were suspected of mutilating a nearby Muslim cemetery, which he likened to a “pogrom”.
Separately, Israeli forces shot and killed a Palestinian who opened fire on them during an arrest raid in the occupied West Bank city of Nablus early Thursday, the Israeli military said.
The army said it was conducting an operation to arrest a suspect when armed men opened fire on soldiers. It said the forces killed one gunman. The military said no soldiers were injured and the suspect was arrested.
The official Palestinian news agency, Wafa, identified the man as 21-year-old Bakir Muhammad Musa Hashash and said he was seriously injured and later died.
Last month, a Palestinian opened fire on a car full of Jewish seminary students next to a West Bank settlement checkpoint. At the same time, settler violence against Palestinians has increased, especially in the northern West Bank.
,