JERUSALEM (EJP)— ‘’I don’t believe that there should be two states between the river Jordan and the Mediterranean. I believe this is a recipe for disaster. We should give the Palestinians much autonomy’’, Israeli Housing and Construction Minister Uri Ariel told a group of European Journalists who visited Israel this week as part of a press trip organized by the Europe Israel Press Association (EIPA).
‘’If there would be a Palestinian state between the Jordan River and the Mediterranean, it will cause millions of refugees to come to this state. These refugees weren’t given citizenship by Arab states where they currently live. This situation would create a very big pressure on this small piece of land and cause nothing but violence,’’ said Ariel, a member of the national-religious Bayit HaYehudi (Jewish Home) party.
‘’I have proposed to the Prime Minister to give the Palestinians more economic assistance as well as more autonomy, to build infrastructures and inproving their life.”
The minister, who received the journalists in his office in Jerusalem, refuted the idea that the recent announcement of the construction of 1,500 new homes in Judea and Samaria (the biblical terms for the West Bank) settlements was a reaction to the formation of a new unity government with the backing of Hamas.
‘’We don’t build in order to punish anybody,’’ he said, adding that ‘’we build in Israel, in Jerusalem, in Judea and Samaria because there is a need and an interest to house people and also an economic need. People need places to live. This is not an act of punishment.’’
He stressed that Israel ‘’doesn’t take land from anyone.’’ ‘’The land belongs to the State of Israel. Any Palestinian who thinks he has a land issue can take it to Israel’s Supreme Court and if the court decides that something wrong has been done, it will come to justice. We are operating under total and transparent legal advice.’’
‘’This is not a private owned land. It was ruled by Jordan for 19 years (before 1967)’’, he added.
In his remarks to the European journalists, he also said Israel is doing its best to encourage Jews around the world to make aliyah or immigrate, ‘’to come and live here with us.’’ ‘’This happens despite Israel’s housing problems because this is in our Jewish DNA. We want all our kids, our grandchildren and great-grandchildren living with us. This is for example why we brought 200,000 of our Ethiopian brothers and sisters. We can double Israel’s population very easily,’’ he said.
According to data released by the semi-governmental Jewish Agency last week, almost 8,000 people have made aliyah over the past 12 months, compared to around 5,000 during the comparable period in 2012-2013, a 55 percent increase.
Deploring that ”there is no partner for peace we can talk with,” he sees the new front in the east with the civil war in Iraq and Iran’s nuclear aspiration as the current real threat.
‘’We are living in a ever changing environment that presents new challenges every day to the State of Israel. Look at the war in Syria, Lebanon with Hezbollah, the kidnapping of Israeli teens in Judea and Samaria, the Gaza terror, Iran and now Iraq.’’
Asked by a journalist about his reaction on the rise of neo-Nazi parties in Europe, Minister Ariel said that because we see a significant rise in anti-Semitism in some countries 70 years after the Holocaust, ‘’we want that Jews don’t immigrate to other countries than Israel.’’