Deputy FM to envoys: Bible shapes Israel’s foreign policy
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JERUSALEM (AFP) — A top Israeli diplomat, in a video seen by AFP on Friday, has instructed envoys to quote the Bible as giving Jews sovereignty over the entire Holy Land, including the West Bank.
Deputy Foreign Minister Tzipi Hotovely, a deeply religious Jewish woman, was sworn in last week as a member of Israel’s new right wing government.
The video shows a speech she gave on Thursday to foreign ministry staff in Jerusalem, which local media said was beamed to 106 Israeli missions overseas.
“It is important to say that this land is ours, all of it is ours. We didn’t come here to apologize for this,” she said.
Religious nationalists such as Hotovely support Jewish sovereignty throughout the Biblical “Land of Israel” and oppose the creation of an independent Palestinian state in the occupied West Bank and in Gaza, a cornerstone of international proposals to end the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
Deputy FM Hotovely’s instructions to envoys Thursday comes shortly after PM Benjamin Netanyahu forged 61 majority streets in the Israeli Knesset, the majority of whom are right leaning and openly refuse the potential establishment of a Palestinian state.