In the past week, over 2300 Americans signed Americans for Peace Now’s petition to President Biden urging him
to deny entrance to Israeli Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich. Despite vocal opposition, it appears that Smotrich
will be allowed to proceed with his upcoming travel plans. It is disappointing that Minister Smotrich’s remarks
calling for the Israeli government to “wipe out” the West Bank village of Huwara in the wake of the settler-led
pogrom on the village on February 26th have not precluded him from entrance into the United States.
In the aftermath of violence like this, it is incumbent on political leaders to call for calm and to do everything in their power to ease the tensions. Instead, Minister Bezalel Smotrich, the civilian governor of the West Bank whose openly pro-annexation agenda has emboldened the most extreme sectors of the Israeli settler movement, called for the Israeli government to commit a war crime. This type of rhetoric doesn’t exist in a vacuum. Tragically, we have seen far too many times where incitement like this leads to violence. Just days ago, a group of young settlers raided Huwara again, attacking Palestinians and their property.