Israel’s far-right Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich expects an apology from German Chancellor Friedrich Merz for his statement that “there should be no ‘de facto’ annexation of the West Bank”, Anadolu reports.

“On the eve of Holocaust Remembrance Day, the German Chancellor should bow his head and apologize a thousand times on behalf of Germany, instead of daring to preach to us about how to behave against the Nazis of our generation,” Smotrich said on American social media platform X late Monday.

“Israel will not accept instructions from hypocritical leaders in Europe, a continent that is again losing its conscience and its ability to distinguish right from wrong,” he asserted.

“The days of Germans dictating to Jews are over,” Smotrich said.

“Our return to the land of Israel, our biblical and historic homeland, is the answer to anyone who tried or is trying to destroy us and we do not apologize for that for a moment,” he said.

The far-right minister’s comments came after German Chancellor Merz on Monday expressed “deep concern” about the situation in the Palestinian territories, saying a “de facto partial annexation of the West Bank must prevented”.

Since the start of the Gaza war in October 2023, attacks by the Israeli military and occupiers in the West Bank have killed at least 1,133 Palestinians, wounded around 11,700 others and led to nearly 22,000 arrests, according to Palestinian figures.

In a landmark opinion in July 2024, the International Court of Justice declared the territory occupied Palestinians from illegal Israel and called for the evacuation of all settlements in the West Bank and East Jerusalem.

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Source: prizrenpost