JERUSALEM, April 16 (UPI) -- Israeli Strategic Affairs Minister Moshe Yaalon said Friday that Jews should be able to remain living in the West Bank in areas controlled by Palestinians.
Yaalon, in an interview with The Jerusalem Post, asked why the region should be "ethnically cleansed" of Jews.
"Why do those areas have to be Judenrein?" he continued. "Don't Arabs live here, in the Negev and the Galilee? Why isn't that part of our public discussion? Why doesn't that scream to the heavens?"
Yaalon referred to the West Bank as Judaea and Samaria, giving the Biblical names used by Israelis who argue the region is part of the Jews' divine heritage. He said no Jewish settlements should be torn down.
Most Palestinians living within Israel's 1948 borders are Israeli citizens with representation in Parliament. But one possible settlement involves exchanging at least some of the West Bank taken up by Jewish settlements with areas now in Israel that are Muslim-majority.
Yaalon is a member of the septet, the top government circle advising Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu.
