JERUSALEM (VINnews) — The chairman of the Religious Zionist Party and the Finance Minister, Bezalel Smotrich, held a press conference on Tuesday morning during which he announced that he intends to sign the order for the evacuation of the illegal Bedouin outpost Khan al-Ahmar, located in the strategic E1 territory between Jerusalem and Maale Adumim. The government has already taken a decision to establish a Jewish neighborhood connecting Jerusalem and Maale Adumim but has yet to evacuate the illegal outpost established on the site.

According to Smotrich, the signing comes in the wake of actions by the Palestinian Authority that led the International Court in The Hague to issue arrest warrants against the Prime Minister and the Defense Minister, and to consider issuing a similar warrant against him.

He stated: “The issuance of arrest warrants against the Prime Minister is a declaration of war. The issuance of arrest warrants against the Defense Minister and the Finance Minister is a declaration of war. Against a declaration of war, we will respond in kind. I am not a submissive Jew. The Palestinian Authority has declared war and it will receive war.”

Smotrich added: “Immediately after I finish speaking here, I will sign an order to evacuate Khan al-Ahmar within my authority as minister in the Defense Ministry. I promise all our enemies: this is only the beginning.”

The minister emphasized: “The hands are the hands of The Hague, but the voice is the voice of the Palestinian Authority, a terrorist organization mistakenly called the Palestinian Authority. A despicable body created in the disgrace of Oslo is, according to all indications, behind the attack on the Prime Minister of Israel and the ministers of the government who dare to implement policy against this terrorist organization.”

He continued: “On a personal level, they do not impress me. I am willing to pay personal prices to serve my people. But on a national level, they are not harming Benjamin Netanyahu or Bezalel Smotrich, they are trying to harm us as leaders of the State of Israel.”

At the beginning of his remarks, he said: “Last night I was informed that the chief prosecutor of the so-called antisemitic court in The Hague filed a secret request for an international arrest warrant against me. This request joins unprecedented arrest warrants issued against Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and former Defense Minister Yoav Gallant. The clumsy attempt to force us into a suicidal security policy through sanctions and arrest warrants will not succeed.

“As a sovereign and independent state, we will not accept hypocritical dictates from biased bodies that consistently position themselves against the State of Israel, against our biblical, historical, and legal rights in our homeland, and against our right and duty to self-defense and security.

“During my term, I did not make noise, I simply acted, and thank G-d I also succeeded. I succeeded in fulfilling my duty as Finance Minister and keeping Israel’s economy stable in the stormy waters of a multi-front war unlike anything Israel has known since its founding.

“I led a revolution in our ancestral, eternal homeland in Judea and Samaria. I did not do it only for the settlers, but for the benefit of the entire State of Israel and its citizens. I did it to prevent a grave and real danger that, after the horrific massacre carried out by Hamas on Simchat Torah, we all now understand was very real.

“For years Israel hesitated to say the obvious: this is our land, and we will act as its owners. In the past three and a half years we have been doing exactly that, and I am proud to lead this dramatic change. We have prevented the dangerous PA plan, established over 100 new settlements and 160 farms, and secured over a million dunams of state land.

“We plan, build, pave, and regulate, turning the settlement enterprise into something irreversible. I am proud of all of this. Very proud.”