Interior Minister Ayelet Shaked, currently visiting the United Arab Emirates, says in an exclusive interview to the Emirati news outlet The National that Israel under Prime Minister Naftali Bennett will not consider the establishment of a Palestinian state.
Follow Israel Hayom on Facebook and Twitter
Shaked told The National that the Bennett-Lapid coalition government had agreed not to tackle any issues that could cause rifts, including the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
According to Shaked, the government's stance was that "economic peace" would improve the lives of the Palestinians and in favor of mutual industrial zones. However, she stressed that Israel would "definitely" not support a Palestinian "state with an army."
The National pointed out that Shaked rejects the labeling of Israeli settlements "illegal," preferring to call them "territory under dispute." In the interview, she called the Boycott, Divestment, Sanctions movement against Israel "hypocrites."
"BDS is a new form of antisemitism," Shaked said.
The interior minister told the paper that Israel had gained first-hand experience that showed that whenever it withdrew from a contested territory, a terrorist organization would spring up in the vacuum, citing southern Lebanon and the Gaza Strip as examples.
"We will not repeat this experiment again," Shaked said.
Subscribe to Israel Hayom's daily newsletter and never miss our top stories!
