UN rights chief slams Israeli minister's 'unfathomable' comments

20

Nina LARSON

Fri, March 3, 2023 at 11:30 AM AKST

In this article:

• Bezalel Smotrich

  Israeli politician

The UN human rights chief on Friday denounced the "unfathomable" call by an Israeli minister for a flashpoint Palestinian town to be "wiped out", urging an end to the violence.

Israeli Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich made his comments on Wednesday, days after two settlers were shot dead in Huwara, killings, that led to Israeli settlers to attack the northern West Bank town.

"I think the village of Huwara needs to be wiped out," Smotrich said. "I think the State of Israel should do it."

Later, he tweeted that he "didn't mean to erase the village of Huwara, but only to act in a targeted way against the terrorists".

But UN rights chief Volker Turk, speaking before the United Nations Human Rights Council in Geneva, denounced Smotrich's original comments as "an unfathomable statement of incitement to violence and hostility".

Washington, a staunch ally of Israel, was even more blunt in its response to Smotrich's comments.

"They were irresponsible, they were repugnant, they were disgusting," US State Department spokesman Ned Price told reporters.

"Just as we condemn Palestinian incitement to violence, we condemn these provocative remarks that also amount to incitement to violence," he added.

A French foreign ministry statement also condemned the comments as "unacceptable, irresponsible and unworthy coming from a member of the Israeli government".

"These comments only fuel hatred and fuel the spiral of current violence," the statement added, appealing for calm.

- Appeal for calm -

Smotrich, an extreme-right settler, spoke during a surge in violence in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, and specifically in the West Bank, which Israel has occupied since the Six-Day War of 1967.

The attack on Huwara late Sunday saw hundreds of settlers set homes and cars ablaze and hurl stones, while a Palestinian man was killed in the nearby village of Zaatara.

More than 350 Palestinians were injured, most suffering from tear gas inhalation, the Palestinian Red Crescent Society said.

 

Bashing China Is a Bipartisan Passion in Evenly Divided US Congress

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Bashing China Is a Bipartisan Passion in Evenly Divided US Congress

Anna Edgerton

Tue, February 28, 2023 at 6:04 PM AKST

(Bloomberg) -- In a politically fractured Congress, a spate of hearings on Tuesday demonstrated that going after China has become one of Washington’s most unifying causes.

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Just back from a two-week recess, the House of Representatives held no fewer than three hearings and debated more than a dozen bills focusing on the danger posed by what lawmakers argue is an increasingly aggressive Communist Party.

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The day was capped with the first meeting of the Select Committee on the Chinese Communist Party, a new congressional body led by 38-year-old Wisconsin Republican Mike Gallagher. Designed to mimic the Jan. 6 hearings on the insurrection at the capital, it featured videos and charts warning of President Xi Jinping’s global ambitions — and was even held in the same room where those hearings occurred.

“We must act with a sense of urgency,” Gallagher said in opening the three-hour hearing, which didn’t attract live television coverage. “Our policy over the next ten years will set the stage for the next hundred. We cannot allow the CCP‘s tech-powered dystopia to prevail.”

The hearing underscored the depth of animosity that has blossomed within the US toward China as the world’s two largest economies spar over everything from Taiwan to the Covid-19 pandemic to high-tech semiconductors and the alleged spy balloon that the US shot down. That bipartisan anger has pressured President Joe Biden to double down on export controls and sanctions to counter Xi despite Biden’s promises to keep the relationship from deteriorating further.

Part of the pressure on Biden is to restrict the US operations of TikTok, the popular short-video app owned by a Chinese company. The administration said late Monday that federal employees had 30 days to remove TikTok from government devices, implementing a congressional requirement.

 

Japan Foreign Minister Set to Attend Quad Talks Hosted by India

1

Jon Herskovitz

Wed, March 1, 2023 at 12:02 AM AKST

In this article:

• Yoshimasa Hayashi

  Japanese politician

(Bloomberg) -- Japanese Foreign Minister Yoshimasa Hayashi is set to attend a get together of top diplomats from the so-called Quad nations hosted by India, after he skipped a G-20 meeting in New Delhi to be present at a parliamentary committee in Tokyo.

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Hayashi gained parliamentary approval allowing him to attend a Friday meeting of Quad nations that also includes the US and Australia, Kyodo News reported. Japan dispatched a deputy minister to attend the G-20 meeting of foreign ministers in India that starts Wednesday.

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A committee in Japan’s upper house of parliament began debate Wednesday on the budget. All members of the cabinet are customarily present for the initial sessions of the budget committee, which is planned to run for two days.

Hayashi had said Japan would “diligently participate” in the events when he faced questions from reporters Tuesday over whether keeping the foreign minister at home for a domestic matter could be seen as a slight to India. Japan has been seeking to bolster security and other ties with Narendra Modi’s government amid growing concerns about China’s assertive behavior in the region, as well as Russia’s war in Ukraine.

The decision not to dispatch the foreign minister to the G-20 meeting may have been more about internal politics in Japan, rather then sending any diplomatic message. Hayashi had already arranged bilateral discussions with some of his counterparts on the sidelines of the meeting, Kyodo previously reported.

Read: Top Japan Diplomat Set to Skip G-20 Talks Hosted by India (2)

Bolstering ties with India has been a priority for Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida’s government as it seeks partners beyond its sole treaty ally, the US, to counter security threats posed by the likes of China. The Quad is a prominent format for cooperation. It has grown in stature in recent years as a counter to Beijing, which has criticized the group as a “clique” that could stoke a new Cold War.