Backlash for Netanyahu after accusing Palestinians of ethnic cleansing
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu says Palestinian refusal to let Jews live with them “ethnic cleansing.”
In a video released Friday, Netanyahu rejected the notion that West Bank settlements were “an obstacle to peace”, drawing a rebuke from Washington.
Netanyahu noted “Israel’s diversity” which manifests in “the nearly two million Arabs living” in the Jewish state and reflects its “openness and readiness for peace”.
“Yet the Palestinian leadership actually demands a Palestinian state with one pre-condition: No Jews,” he said.
“There’s a phrase for that: It’s called ethnic cleansing.”
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The US State Department called the video “unhelpful” and “inappropriate”.
“We obviously strongly disagree with the characterisation that those who oppose settlement activity or view it as an obstacle to peace are somehow calling for ethnic cleansing of Jews from the West Bank,” spokeswoman Elizabeth Trudeau said Friday.
“We believe that using that type of terminology is inappropriate and unhelpful,” she said.
“Settlements are a final status issue that must be resolved in negotiations between the parties.”
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