Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich has demanded a change to the annual routine during the month of Ramadan.
“It makes no sense that every year during Ramadan, Israel braces itself for an attack. Ramadan passing peacefully is far more important to Arabs than to Israel,” Smotrich declared.
“Security for Israelis is more important than anything. Roads should be closed and they should be forbidden from using central routes to allow Israelis to travel safely.”
This morning, following the Prime Minister’s acceptance of Smotrich’s position, Minister Smotrich sent a letter to the Prime Minister via his military secretary, the Cabinet secretary, and the head of the National Security Council in which he demanded to ensure that the Prime Minister’s instructions had been carried out.
The letter was entitled “Plan for the closure of roads and checkpoints in Judea and Samaria during Ramadan” and stated “Following the clear consent of the Prime Minister after the end of the Cabinet meeting yesterday, according to which he accepted my position that the policy for the use of roads and checkpoints should be made more stringent and not less, and ordered the IDF to present him with a plan for doing so, and because unfortunately, we are in the height of what seems to be a wave of deadly attacks, which are made possible, among other things, by the freedom of movement for Palestinians on the roads, I ask that you ensure the Prime Minister’s instructions are carried out with all possible urgency and demand that the IDF present the aforementioned plan immediately at the beginning of next week, and put it into practice. We cannot continue the current dangerous policy.”