07 Jan 2022; MEMO: Israeli Member of the Knesset Yair Golan called settlers living in the illegal West Bank settlement of Homesh as "subhumans" yesterday.
The Deputy economy minister and member of the left-wing Meretz party has come under attack for saying: "These are not people, these are subhumans, they are despicable." "There should be no one there," he continued in an interview. "When I commanded the Judea and Samaria [occupied West Bank] Division [of the army], I did not let anyone settle there."
Settlers in Homesh face eviction. The land on which they have built their homes belongs to Palestinians from the village of Burka in the north of the occupied West Bank. Golan also slammed settlers for vandalising Palestinian property. "They do not mention that those people who come to settle there [in Homesh] riot in the [Palestinian] village of Burka, smash tombstones, carrying out a pogrom. We, the Jewish people who have suffered from pogroms throughout history, now enact pogroms against others."
However, his criticism has led to calls for him to step down. Prime Minister Naftali Bennett hit back at Golan saying: "Those who settle in Judea and Samaria are the pioneers of today. We have not taken a foreign land, we have reclaimed the land of our forefathers."]
Golan later partly apologised saying his use of words was a "bit incorrect" and he should have said "lowly rioters".
