RAMALLAH, The Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Expatriates today criticized statements by Israeli Prime Minister Naftali Bennett in which he called on his army and police to use excessive force against the Palestinians wherever they are, saying such statements are incitement to violence against the Palestinian people.

The ministry said in a statement that Bennett’s remarks are a “direct incitement to escalate the situation and the cycle of violence, as well as an official Israeli admission that what the occupying forces and settlers are doing is a systematic Israeli policy directed from the top of the political hierarchy in the occupying country.”

It added: “These calls are issued by a racist colonial mentality that denies the existence of our Palestinian people and their right to their homeland, and replaces the culture of peace with the culture of hatred and the abolition of the other.”

The Foreign Ministry also criticized Bennett’s visit to two Israeli settlements in the occupied West Bank yesterday and today, saying they “reflect Israeli persistence in legalizing, deepening, and expanding Israeli colonies in the territory of the State of Palestine in flagrant violation of international law, the Geneva Conventions, and the international legality (United Nations) and its resolutions.”

It stressed that all this is “a new proof of the absence of an Israeli peace partner and that the Israeli government’s stated policies and measures are racist and anti-peace and aim to undermine any opportunity to restore the political horizon for resolving the conflict on the basis of the principle of the two-state solution, and a deliberate sabotage for any regional and international effort to build trust between the Palestinian and Israeli sides.”

Source: Palestine News & Info Agency