Economy Minister Naftali Bennett
Economy Minister Naftali BennettFlash 90

Economy Minister and Jewish Home chairman Naftali Bennett on Friday said that the blame on the Hamas-Fatah unity government should not be placed on Palestinian Authority (PA) Chairman Mahmoud Abbas, but rather on the Palestinian Arab people.

“The anger against Abbas over the Fatah-Hamas unity government is misplaced The problem is not Abbas. Rather, it is the Palestinian public that does not accept the State of Israel,” wrote Bennett on his Facebook page.

“How do I know this? In the only free elections that have ever been held, Hamas won 76 seats out of 132. A clear majority. Fatah won 48 seats,” he pointed out.

“This means the majority of the Palestinian public voted for an anti-Jewish terrorist movement that aims to destroy Israel through Jihad. The minority voted for the anti-Jewish terrorist movement that aims to destroy Israel in stages.”

“So what do we do about it? We get stronger, and we raise our heads up high. We apply Israeli sovereignty over the territory of our country. We will continue to build our magnificent country,” wrote Bennett.

“There will be new generations on the other side who hopefully will choose a path other than terror. If not, well, we will still manage,” he concluded.

Bennett has long advocated for sovereignty over Area C of Judea and Samaria, which contains all the Jewish communities, most notably in a viral video released shortly before his election to government.

He recently drafted a letter to Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu, demanding that Israel establish full sovereignty over "settlement blocs" in Judea and Samaria. 

The demand came after the Palestinian Authority (PA) violated the Oslo Accords by taking unilateral action and applying for membership in fifteen different international organizations

The State Department has dismissed Bennett’s plan, claiming it “does not reflect” the position of the Israeli government.

Justice Minister Tzipi Livni has also blasted the idea, saying it would mean “the end of Zionism” and declaring that as long as she is a Cabinet minister, Bennett’s “nonsense”, as she put it, will not be implemented.

(Arutz Sheva’s North American Desk is keeping you updated until the start of Shabbat in New York. The time posted automatically on all Arutz Sheva articles, however, is Israeli time.)