{"id":127403,"date":"2025-08-07T21:56:14","date_gmt":"2025-08-07T21:56:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/127403\/"},"modified":"2025-08-07T21:56:14","modified_gmt":"2025-08-07T21:56:14","slug":"smotrich-photographed-next-to-death-to-arabs-graffiti-disavows-message","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/127403\/","title":{"rendered":"Smotrich photographed next to ‘Death to Arabs’ graffiti, disavows message"},"content":{"rendered":"

Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich on Thursday disavowed the slogan \u201cDeath to Arabs\u201d after being photographed next to the graffitied phrase during a tour of the northern West Bank, in which he vowed to rebuild the settlement of Sa-Nur that was evacuated decades ago.<\/p>\n

Smotrich, who also serves as a minister in the Defense Ministry, was photographed next to the slogan as he visited the site to mark 20 years since it and the nearby settlement Homesh were dismantled as part of Israel\u2019s 2005 Disengagement Plan. The plan also saw Israel evacuate the Gaza Strip\u2019s Gush Katif settlement bloc, which Smotrich has called on Israel to rebuild as well amid the war in Gaza.<\/p>\n

Following online criticism of the photograph, Smotrich\u2019s office said in a statement that the offending phrase was noticed only \u201cafter the photo was distributed, and of course we completely disavow it.\u201d<\/p>\n

Smotrich\u2019s office said the media shouldn\u2019t be concerned by \u201cstupid graffiti that no one noticed,\u201d but by the minister\u2019s drive to \u201creverse the expulsion from northern Samaria and resettle Sa-Nur.\u201d<\/p>\n

The photograph was included in a press release by the Samaria Regional Council, which oversees settlers\u2019 municipal affairs in the northern West Bank. Council head Yossi Dagan, who also appeared in the photo, later sent out a second press release with the \u201cDeath to Arabs\u201d graffiti cropped out of the picture, without apologizing for the phrase or explaining the reason for the edit.<\/p>\n

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Opposition Leader Yair Lapid slammed Smotrich on X: \u201cAside from the moral issue, what in God\u2019s name does the government expect us to say to the world when a photo is published of a senior minister smiling next to the inscription \u2018Death to Arabs\u2019?\u201d<\/p>\n

\t\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Opposition Leader Yair Lapid leads a faction meeting at the Knesset, in Jerusalem, on August 4, 2025. (Yonatan Sindel\/Flash90)<\/p>\n

Smotrich\u2019s appearance next to the slogan \u2014 a fixture of some right-wing gatherings<\/a> \u2014 came as settler attacks<\/a> on Palestinians in the West Bank have taken place on a near-daily basis, largely with impunity, sparking mounting sanctions from Western governments.<\/p>\n

\u2018Correcting the mistake of the expulsion\u2019<\/p>\n

Visiting the former area of Sa-Nur with families who said they were preparing to move there, Smotrich, referring to the 2005 Disengagement, said: \u201cWe are correcting the mistake of the expulsion.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cEven back then, we knew that\u2026 we would one day return to all the places we were driven out of,\u201d said Smotrich. \u201cThat applies to Gaza, and it\u2019s even more true here.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Palestinian Authority issued a strong condemnation of Smotrich\u2019s visit, saying it was part of \u201cplans to entrench the gradual annexation of the West Bank, posing a direct threat to the possibility of implementing the two-state solution\u201d to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.<\/p>\n

\t\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Illustrative: Residents of the Gaza Strip settlement bloc Gush Katif protest against Israel\u2019s Disengagement Plan on May 30, 2004, outside of the Prime Minister\u2019s Office in Jerusalem. (Flash90)<\/p>\n

In a statement, the PA foreign ministry said the push \u201cto revive settlements that were evacuated 20 years ago\u201d would lead to further confiscation of Palestinian lands.<\/p>\n

Defense Minister Israel Katz confirmed in May that Israel had approved the construction of 22 new West Bank settlements, including Sa-Nur and Homesh.<\/p>\n

Israeli NGO Peace Now, which monitors settlement activity in the West Bank, said some of the 22 settlements the government announced as new had already existed on the ground.<\/p>\n

Some are neighborhoods that were upgraded to independent settlements, and others are unrecognized outposts given formal status under Israeli law, according to Peace Now.<\/p>\n

\t\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Defense Minister Israel Katz meets with IDF officials at the site of the former Sa-Nur settlement in the West Bank after the government approves its reconstruction, May 30, 2025. (Ariel Hermoni\/Defense Ministry)<\/p>\n

Israeli settlements in the West Bank, which Israel has controlled since the Six Day War of June 1967, are considered illegal by most of the international community, with the exception of the United States.<\/p>\n

Settlements in the West Bank are seen as impeding the establishment of a Palestinian state there, in the Gaza Strip and East Jerusalem as part of the two-state solution.<\/p>\n

Smotrich and others in Israel\u2019s right wing have rejected Palestinian statehood and called for Israel to annex the West Bank, which is home to an estimated three million Palestinians and 500,000 settlers.<\/p>\n


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\t\t\tAlready a member? Sign in to stop seeing this<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich on Thursday disavowed the slogan \u201cDeath to Arabs\u201d after being photographed next to the…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":127404,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[99,50],"class_list":{"0":"post-127403","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-news","8":"tag-israel","9":"tag-news"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/114989720250079546","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/127403","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=127403"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/127403\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/127404"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=127403"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=127403"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=127403"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}