Amid the ongoing Israeli military assault on the Gaza Strip in response to the surprise Hamas attack on October 7, Israel’s far-right finance minister, Bezalel Smotrich has called on Palestinians to “voluntarily emigrate” to Western countries.
Smotrich’s remarks came after Knesset members Danny Danon, and Ram Ben-Barak, former deputy director of the intelligence agency Mossad, published an commentary in the Wall Street Journal suggesting that part of the Gaza population be transferred to nations that will accept them.
Taking to Facebook, Smotrich said that, “I welcome the initiative of voluntary relocation of Gazan Arabs to countries worldwide. This is the right humanitarian solution for the residents of Gaza and the whole area after 75 years of being poor refugees.”
Following his remarks, the ‘indigenous’ Israeli officials’ list was revealed in a video on X by The Cradle on Tuesday. The list indicates that there is not a single leader of Israeli origin among them.
Here is a quick look at origin of Israeli leaders
- President Isaac Herzog — Ireland
- Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu — Poland
- Defense Minister Yoav Gallant — Poland
- Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich — Ukraine
- National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir — Iraq
- Foreign Minister Eli Cohen — Morocco
- Opposition leader Yair Lapid — Serbia
- Former defense minister and war cabinet member Benny Gantz — Hungary and Romania
- Israeli UN representative Gilad Erdan — Romania
- Israeli diplomat and government advisor Mark Regev — Australia and Germany
- Israeli ambassador to the UK Tzipi Hotovely — Georgia
Social media users has heavily criticized the Israeli authorities for the ‘voluntarily immigration’ call after the origin of the Israeli leaders came to fore.
“I need these countries to take them back now,” one of the X user wrote.
Another wrote, “Their original names are the most interesting. These are white Europeans from the Balkans whose names end in -vic. They changed their names to sound more Biblical then grabbed an entire country.”
“No wonder dna testing is illegal in this place 🫢,” wrote another.
“Where will we go if Israel disappears? Well, go back to the country you actually belong to,” another user wrote.
“…not them being exposed like the gutter rats they all are! any time someone asks where the settlers are supposed to go show them this,” wrote another.
