Responding to the news that Netanyahu-appointed Finance Minister Betzalel Smotrich is scheduled to travel to the United States this month, and after Smotrich responded to a settler pogrom in the Palestinian village of Huwara by saying that the State of Israel should “wipe out” that village, NIF CEO Daniel Sokatch released the following statement: 

Smotrich presents a clear and present danger to the life and liberty of all Israelis and Palestinians living between the river and the sea. This is a man whose primary goal is to apply Israeli sovereignty to the West Bank and make Israel a theocracy run by the tiny minority of Israelis who share his messianic worldview. This is why he wants to demolish Israel’s judiciary — he sees Israel’s democratic checks and balances as an impediment to making Israel an apartheid state for Jews only. His project is to cleanse Israel of both Arabs and impure Jews, he believes LGBTQ love is “worse than bestiality,” and now, thanks to Netanyahu, he is in a position of extraordinary power.

Our responsibility right now as American Jews is to say “take your hateful racism, your homophobia, your plans for an apartheid Israel and get out. We do not want you here.”