THE Biden administration is under growing pressure to block a visit by Israel’s extremist finance minister, Bezalel Smortrich, over his call to “wipe out” a Palestinian town that was the target of an attack by Jewish settlers.
Smotrich’s plan to speak at an investment conference in Washington, DC next week has drawn unusually strong criticism, including accusations that he is promoting “Jewish supremacy”, from individuals and groups that are more usually ardent defenders of Israel.
More than 100 Jewish American leaders signed a statement opposing the visit by the leader of the Religious Zionism party in Benjamin Netanyahu’s far-right coalition government.
It said they “reject the notion that someone must be accorded respect simply by virtue of serving in the Israeli government”.
“We call on all pro-Israel Americans to understand that welcoming Smotrich here will harm, rather than help, support for Israel,” they said.
“Smotrich has long expressed views that are abhorrent to the vast majority of American Jews, from anti-Arab racism, to virulent homophobia, to a full-throated embrace of Jewish supremacy. To this list, we can now add his endorsement of violence against innocents based on their ethnic heritage.”
The pro-Israel lobby group, J Street, called on the Biden administration to consider the unprecedented step of refusing a US visa to a senior Israeli government minister, and to refuse to meet him if he is allowed into the country.
“We agree with Israeli opposition leader and former prime minister Yair Lapid that Smotrich’s comments constitute ‘incitement to a war crime’,” it said.