Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich said Friday on his way to a security cabinet meeting that he will demand Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu establish a new community at the Sela outpost by transferring the area to Area C. “The villages from which terror emerges should look like the refugee camps in Shechem [Nablus],” the minister said, referring to the villages of Tal and Beit Furik. According to him, establishing a new town is “the appropriate Zionist response to the desire to harm our hold on our land.”
Smotrich addressed the recent attacks in Judea and Samaria, calling for an immediate change in security doctrine. According to him, the enemy has been raising its head recently and a sharp, determined, and unequivocal IDF operation is required “here and now.” The minister emphasized that the current reality demands a powerful response that will restore deterrence and security to the area, as an answer to the series of murderous attacks at Havat Gilad and Havat Avraham.
Smotrich referred specifically to the villages of Tal and Iraq Burin near the site of the attack in which Binyahu Mellet was murdered, and to the village of Beit Furik from which the terror against farm owner Itamar Cohen emerged. “These are villages of terrorists from which terror emerges again and again,” the minister stated, adding that they should look exactly like Shechem and Tulkarm. He called to evacuate the population for its protection, and to clean the villages of terror infrastructure and terrorists.
In addition to offensive activity, the minister is demanding the IDF conduct clearing operations and create defensive zones around the communities, roads, and farms that constitute the state’s security belt. He intends to demand from the prime minister to allow immediate establishment of a town at the Sela outpost near the attack site. The move will include transferring the area from Area B to Area C, a step that according to the minister will constitute an appropriate Zionist response to terror seeking to harm the Jewish hold on the land.