“You’re here by mistake, because [Israel’s first Prime Minister David] Ben-Gurion didn’t finish the job and throw you out in 1948,” lawmaker Bezalel Smotrich told Arab Knesset members during a debate on a proposed change to the Basic Law on Immigration, which was sponsored by his Religious Zionism colleague, Simcha Rothman. “That’s the truth, that’s the truth,” Smotrich reiterated.
It’s hard to downplay the importance of this statement. This is no longer a war of narratives between “the return to Zion and the Jews’ historical rights” and “the Nakba,” but rather an adoption of the Palestinian narrative. Simultaneously, it’s also an abandonment of all morality. Without blinking, Smotrich seeks to erase Israel’s Palestinian citizens from existence.
Nevertheless, we need to ask one simple question: How great is the distance, in both moral and practical terms, between Smotrich’s statement and Prime Minister Naftali Bennett’s
— source Jews For Justice For Palestinians | Sheren Falah Saab, Elitzur Bar-Asher Siegal | Oct 21, 2021