Israeli's Avigdor Lieberman has said that Tel Aviv would be better served by expelling all Palestinians to the Palestinian territories and letting them become citizens there
Israeli Defense Minister Avigdor Lieberman has said that Tel Aviv would be better served by expelling all Palestinians to the Palestinian territories and letting them become citizens there.
"Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, at his meeting on Wednesday with Donald Trump, should coordinate with the new U.S. president on expanding Israeli sovereignty to parts of the West Bank," said the Minister in his Hebrew interview.
“I want a Jewish state. Just as the Palestinians want a homogeneous Palestinian state, without a single Jew in it, so I first and foremost want as Jewish a state of Israel as possible," he said.
“I want to separate from all the Palestinians who live here inside pre-1967 Israel. With my blessing: You are Palestinians, you should go to live under the rule of Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas. You'll be citizens of the Palestinian Authority. He'll pay you unemployment benefits, health benefits, maternity benefits, hanging around benefits." he said.
Lieberman also retreated Israel's determination to construct 5,500 new settlement homes- 65 percentage of which were for immediate construction, he said.
The defense minister also urged Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to seek deal with United States President Donald Trump on their occupation policies.
Previously, U.S. President Donald Trump has reiterated his promise to move the American embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem, and to formally recognize the ancient city as the capital of Israel.
Trump's words signaled an aggressive Israel policy and his statement was followed by Israel's approval of building permits for a 566 residence settlement in occupied East Jerusalem.
The approval of the building plan on Sunday came two days after the inauguration of Donald Trump in the United States, with an Israeli official saying the permits had been held up until the end of Barack Obama's administration, which had been critical of Israeli settlement activity.
Palestinians are reacting harshly to Trump's statement, saying that such a decision would mean that the U.S. would officially recognize the Israeli capital as Jerusalem instead of Tel Aviv.
Both Palestinians and Israelis have been living in Jerusalem for decades and both claim Jerusalem as their capital. Outgoing U.S. President Obama also cautioned Trump's new team.
East Jerusalem is among those territories which were occupied by Israel during the Six-Day War of 1967.
Despite the fact that Israel has been applying a permanent settlement strategy in the occupied territory and claims that Jerusalem is the capital of the country, the United Nations does not accept Israel's single-sided declaration of Jerusalem as capital, as well as its presence on the lands it occupied after 1967.
