Itamar Ben-Gvir

‘Conquer, Kick Out, Resettle’: Israel’s Far-Right Gathers to Plan Ethnic Cleansing of Gaza

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Original article by Brett Wilkins republished from Common Dreams under Creative Commons (CC BY-NC-ND 3.0)

Israeli settler leader Daniella Weiss (center) and other advocates of “Greater Israel” hold up a map showing Jewish recolonization of the Gaza Strip in Palestine during an October 21, 2024 rally in Be’eri, Israel. (Photo: Enes Canli/Anadolu via Getty Images)

“Each of you will witness how Jews go to Gaza and Arabs will disappear from Gaza,” said one prominent Israeli settler.

Hundreds of Israelis including numerous senior state officials gathered Sunday near the Gaza border for a festive two-day rally at which members of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s government and leaders of the settler movement openly spoke of ethnically cleansing Palestinians in the embattled coastal enclave to make way for Jewish recolonization.

“We came here with one clear purpose: to settle the entire Gaza Strip… Every inch from north to south,” Daniella Weiss, who co-founded the extremist settler movement Nachala—which organized the rally backed by Netanyahu’s Likud party—told attendees on Monday as joyous music played in the background.

“We’re thousands of people and ready to move to Gaza at a moment’s notice,” she continued. “October 7 changed history. As a result of the brutal massacre, the Gazan Arabs have lost their rights to be here forever, they’ll not stay here.”

“We plan to take what we have acquired in the years of settling Judea and Samaria and to do the same thing here in Gaza,” Weiss asserted, referring to the historic Jewish names for the illegally occupied Palestinian West Bank territories being gradually usurped by Israeli seizure and settlement. “Each of you will witness how Jews go to Gaza and Arabs will disappear from Gaza.”

“I want to say to the world: This isn’t just for the Jews. We’re doing this for the benefit of the entire world,” added Weiss, who earlier this year was sanctioned by Canada for inciting violence against Palestinians in the illegally occupied West Bank. “Ending the evil powers is for everyone. I call on the democracies of the world to stand with us. Adopt the values of the Bible.”

Israeli National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir, leader of the far-right Jewish Power party, told attendees: “What we have learned this year is that everything is up to us. We are the owners of this land.”

“Yes, we experienced a terrible catastrophe,” he added. “But what we need to understand, one year later—so many Israelis have changed their thinking… They understand that when Israel acts like the rightful owners of this land, this is what brings results.”

May Golan, Minister for social equality and the advancement of the status of women of Israel, told rallygoers, “We will hit them where it hurts—their land.”

“Anyone who uses their plot of land to plan another Holocaust will receive from us, with God’s help, another Nakba,” Golan added, referring to the ethnic cleansing of more than 750,000 Arabs from Palestine by Jewish militants during the establishment of the modern state of Israel in 1948. Around two-thirds of Gaza’s population are descendants of Nakba refugees.

Sima Hasson of the group Mothers’ Parade told the audience that “I’m going to say something that not everyone here is prepared to say, but I am, and I know a lot of you are: Conquer, kick out, resettle.”

“I’m not just talking about one area of Gaza,” she continued. “I’m not just talking about northern Gaza. I mean every single sliver of land. It’s the only way we’ll save our boys from constantly going to war.”

“To everyone in Europe who has an opinion about what’s happening here, I say: Don’t get involved,” Hasson added. “Worry about yourselves. Radical Islam is taking over your whole continent. You want to help? Take in the Gazans who we want to leave Gaza.”

Other Cabinet members who spoke at the rally included Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich of the Religious Zionist Party and Negev and Galilee Minister Yitzhak Wasserlauf of Jewish Power. Knesset members in attendance included Ariel Kallner, Avichai Boaron, Osher Shkalim, Tally Gotliv, and Sasson Gueta of Likud; Tzvi Sukkot of the Religious Zionist Party; and Limor Son Harmelech from Jewish Power.

“We need to occupy the complete land of Israel. There are no innocent people in Gaza,” Gotliv toldMiddle East Eye. “Everybody who has refused to leave the north is a collaborator.”

“There are no innocent people in Gaza.”

While numerous Israeli officials called for the recolonization of a Gaza Strip prior to the October 7, 2023 Hamas-led attack, such calls have accelerated since then. In January, Ben-Gvir, Smotrich, and other senior Israeli officials attended a similar but smaller conference hosted by Nachala on the Jewish recolonization of Gaza.

Last year, Amir Weitmann, who chairs Likud’s Libertarian faction, published a plan examining the economics of forcibly transferring Gazans to Egypt’s Sinai Desert. A separate 2023 proposal by then-Intelligence Minister Gila Gamliel, who is also a Likud member, would ethnically cleanse Palestinians from Gaza, forcing them into the Sinai.

Monday’s rally came as Israel’s military continued its relentless 381-day assault on Gaza, which has left more than 152,000 Palestinians dead, maimed, or missing and for which Israel is on trial for genocide at the International Court of Justice (ICJ).

In recent weeks, Israeli forces have intensified attacks on northern Gaza—seen by numerous observers as the part of the coastal strip most likely to be seized by Israel—including Saturday airstrikes in Beit Lahia in which more than 120 Palestinians were killed, wounded, or are missing.

The intensified assault comes as some Israeli troops claim the Israel Defense Forces has launched the so-called “Generals’ Plan,” a blueprint for the starvation and ethnic cleansing of Palestinians from northern Gaza. The U.S., which provides Israel with tens of billions of dollars in military aid and diplomatic cover, last week warned Israeli leaders against any such “policy of starvation,” which critics countered is already being implemented throughout Gaza with deadly results.

More than 20 Israeli settlements were built in Gaza following Israel’s conquest of the territory during the 1967 Six-Day War. While Israeli troops and settlers withdrew from Gaza in 2005, the besieged enclave is still considered occupied under international law, as Israel maintains a physical and economic stranglehold on the territory.

As in the occupied West Bank, Israel’s settlements in Gaza, as well as the occupation itself, were illegal under international law. In July, the ICJ issued an advisory opinion stating that Israel’s 57-year occupation of the West Bank and Gaza is an illegal form of apartheid that must end “as rapidly as possible.”

However, in language resembling the Palestinian liberation slogan “from the river to the sea,” Likud’s founding platform states that “between the sea and the Jordan [River], there will be only Israeli sovereignty.” On multiple occasions over the past year or so, Netanyahu has publicly displayed maps showing the Middle East in which there is no Palestine and all Palestinian lands are labeled as “Israel.”

Original article by Brett Wilkins republished from Common Dreams under Creative Commons (CC BY-NC-ND 3.0)

Zionist Keir Starmer is quoted "I support Zionism without qualification." He's asked whether that means that he supports Zionism under all circumstances, whatever Zionists do.
Zionist Keir Starmer is quoted “I support Zionism without qualification.” He’s asked whether that means that he supports Zionism under all circumstances, whatever Zionists do.
Vote For Genocide Vote Labour.
Vote For Genocide Vote Labour.
Continue Reading‘Conquer, Kick Out, Resettle’: Israel’s Far-Right Gathers to Plan Ethnic Cleansing of Gaza

Over 1,500 Israeli settlers led by Minister Ben-Gvir, storm Al-Aqsa Mosque

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Original article by Aseel Saleh republished from peoples dispatch under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 (CC BY-SA) license.

Israeli Minister of National Security Itamar Ben-Gvir. Photo: Wikimedia Commons/ שי קנדלר

Storming the Al-Aqsa Mosque has been one of the Israeli occupation’s provocative policies towards the Palestinian people, exemplifying the fact that the end goal of the Zionist project is incompatible with any semblance of Palestinian sovereignty

In a new assault on sacred places within the occupied Palestinian capital of Al-Quds (Jerusalem), around 1,500 illegal Israeli settlers stormed the Al-Aqsa mosque compound on Tuesday, August 13. The settlers were led by Israeli Minister of National Security Itamar Ben-Gvir , and Minister for the Development of the Periphery, the Negev and the Galilee Yitzhak Wasserlauf. The attack comes as Israel’s genocidal war on Gaza completes 10 months, and Israel’s continuous provocations have put the ceasefire talks in jeopardy.

The assault was not limited to storming the holy site as Jewish rituals were also performed there in commemoration of the Jews’ fast of Tisha B’Av. According to media reports, Palestinian worshipers were prevented from accessing Al-Aqsa compound during the incursion.

As per international conventions and agreements, including the Jordan-Israel Peace Treaty, only Muslims are allowed to pray within Al-Aqsa compound, also known as Al-Haram al-Sharif (the Arabic term for the Noble Sanctuary).

On July 24, Ben-Gvir declared the permission of Jewish prayers in the so-called “Temple Mount”, the Israeli alleged name for Al-Aqsa Mosque compound. Speaking at a  Knesset conference, Ben Gavir stated then: “I was at the Temple Mount last week. I prayed at the Temple Mount and we are praying at the Temple Mount. I am in the political echelon, and the political echelon allows Jewish prayer at the Temple Mount.”

Jordan’s custodianship over Al-Aqsa mosque

In 1924, the Supreme Muslim Council, which was the highest Muslim body in charge of Muslims’ affairs in Mandatory Palestine, decided to assign Al-Hussein Bin Ali, the  grandfather of Jordan’s King Abdullah II, to be the custodian of Al-Aqsa Mosque. The custodianship over Al-Aqsa became a legacy of consecutive Hashemite Jordanian monarchs ever since even after Palestine was occupied by  Zionists in 1948, who then established their colonial state known today as Israel.

In 1994, the Israeli occupation signed a peace treaty with Jordan, which stipulated Israel’s recognition of Jordan’s role as custodian of Christian and Muslim holy sites in Jerusalem. However, Israeli officials, illegal settlers, and armed forces have recurrently committed flagrant violations in Al-Aqsa Mosque compound, despite the treaty.

Jordanian authorities generally issue condemnations against Israeli violations against Al-Aqsa and Muslim worshipers, who perform religious rituals there. Jordan’s last statement was published after the latest episode on Tuesday, August 13.

“The incursion, carried out under the protection of Israeli occupation forces, coincides with provocative actions by Israeli extremists and restrictions on worshippers’ access to the mosque. This act is a blatant violation of international law and the historical and legal status of Jerusalem and its sanctities, reflecting the Israeli government’s disregard for international laws and its obligations as the occupying power,” Jordan’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Expatriates said on Tuesday.

The Ministry also reaffirmed that the Jordanian Ministry of Awqaf ( Endowments) and Islamic Affairs is the legal authority responsible for managing all affairs of Al-Haram al-Sharif compound and regulating access to it. Whereas the right of the State of Palestine to sovereignty over occupied Jerusalem was stressed by the Jordanian Ministry, which at the same time assured that Israel, as the occupying power, has no right or sovereignty over the city and its Islamic and Christian sanctities.

Al-Aqsa: a constant trigger point in the struggle against occupation

Al-Aqsa Mosque, in particular, and Al-Quds city in general are national constants that Palestinian have categorically refused to concede along with maintaining Palestinian refugees’ right of return, freeing Palestinian prisoners from Israeli jails, liberating Palestine, and ending the Israeli occupation. Therefore, any violations against Al-Aqsa or attempts to change the status quo have always fueled milestone events within the lengthy struggle of the Palestinian people against the Israeli occupation.

A report issued by the Palestinian Islamic Resistance Movement Hamas in January 2024, clarified that the Israeli assaults against Al-Aqsa were among the major factors that triggered Operation Al-Aqsa Flood in October 2023.

The report which is titled “Our Narrative…Operation Al-Aqsa Flood” explained that the operation was a necessary step, and that it was a natural reaction against Israel’s plans to eliminate the Palestinian cause, seize and/or Judaize Palestinian lands, and impose complete control over Al-Aqsa Mosque and other holy sites.

The year 2000 marked another milestone, when the second Intifada, also named Al-Aqsa Intifada, broke out after then-Israeli opposition leader Ariel Sharon,stormed Al-Aqsa Mosque compound escorted by more than 1,000 heavily armed Israeli police and army personnel.

Sharon’s assault on Al-Aqsa was preceded by other Israeli massacres in the holy site that left scores of Palestinians killed. In 1996, protests erupted across different parts of occupied Palestine after the Israeli occupation authorities opened a tunnel under Al-Aqsa western wall. The Israeli Occupation Forces clashed with protesters leaving 63 Palestinians killed and over 1,600 wounded.

Another bloody massacre took place in 1990, when an Israeli individual attempted to place the cornerstone for a temple inside Al-Aqsa mosque compound. The incident sparked demonstrations by Palestinians within the compound, which were suppressed by Israeli occupation forces’ gunfire, killing 21 Palestinians and wounding over one hundred others.

In 1982, Israeli soldier Harry Goldman stormed Al-Aqsa Mosque, and opened fire at worshipers and guards. Two Palestinians were killed in the incident and 60 others were wounded.

Christians in occupied Palestine, particularly in Jerusalem have also suffered from Israeli oppression and discriminatory acts. The year 2023 witnessed a “notable increase” in attacks against Christians and their property, according to Israeli media reports. Assaults committed by religious Jews on Christian symbols, churches, clergy, nuns, and pilgrims, were documented in videos, circulated widely and condemned by Palestinian Christian clergy and laypersons.

The Zionist entity has adopted an apartheid approach aiming at uprooting Palestinians, dispossessing their land, property, sacred sites, and even their culture and cuisine. However, even after 10 months of Israel’s genocide in Gaza, it is apparent that resistance and resilience have been deeply entrenched in the Palestinian collective perception, and inherently rooted in their conscience.

Original article by Aseel Saleh republished from peoples dispatch under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 (CC BY-SA) license.

Continue ReadingOver 1,500 Israeli settlers led by Minister Ben-Gvir, storm Al-Aqsa Mosque

UN Probe Finds ‘Appalling Acts’ of Torture Against Palestinians Detained by Israel

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Original article by EDWARD CARVER republished from Common Dreams under Creative Commons (CC BY-NC-ND 3.0).

Palestinian Faouzi Abdel Aal, 21, is rushed to Nasser hospital in the southern Gaza Strip to receive treatment for his injuries, after being reportedly released from an Israeli detention center on July 25, 2024. (Photo: Bashar Taleb/AFP via Getty Images)

The U.N. report found evidence of sexual violence, waterboarding, and the use of dogs against detainees, many of whom were deprived of food, water, sleep, and toilet access.

The Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights on Wednesday released a report detailing torture and abuse of Palestinians at Israeli detention centers, including sexual violence, waterboarding, and the use of dogs.

Israeli security forces have also used electric shocks, burned detainees with cigarettes, and deprived them of food, water, sleep, and toilet access, according to the 23-page OHCHR report, based largely on interviews with released detainees. Some detainees said they were held with their arms suspended from the ceiling; were forced to be naked for prolonged periods, wearing only diapers; and were blindfolded for extended periods.

Israel security forces have arrested thousands of Palestinians from the West Bank and Gaza since October, many of them arbitrarily; they held more than 9,400 “security detainees” as of the end of June, often in secret and incommunicado, without providing a reason for the detainment, the report says.

“The testimonies gathered by my office and other entities indicate a range of appalling acts, such as waterboarding and the release of dogs on detainees, amongst other acts, in flagrant violation of international human rights law and international humanitarian law,” U.N. Human Rights chief Volker Türk said in a statement accompanying the report.

Most of the detainees have been men and adolescent boys, though some are also women and adolescent girls, and there are many reported instances of sexual and gender-based violence, the report says, including “the forced nudity of both men and women; beatings while naked, including on the genitals; electrocution of the genitals and anus; being forced to undergo repeated humiliating strip searches; widespread sexual slurs and threats of rape; and the inappropriate touching of women by both male and female soldiers.”

OHCHR also said it had video evidence of detainees filmed in “deliberately humiliating positions” while handcuffed and blindfolded, and noted it received “consistent reports” of Israeli security forces “inserting objects into detainees’ anuses.”

Some detainees also reported “cage-like” facilities and overcrowding. The report says that 13 to 20 male detainees were kept in cells designed for five people, forcing many to sleep on the floor. There were “poor living, hygiene, and health conditions, with reports of water running only one hour per day over several weeks” and detainees faced “exposure to cold temperatures due to the confiscation of blankets and removal of windows panes in cold weather.”

At least 53 Palestinian detainees have died in Israeli detention centers since October, according to the report, which suggests that the detention system appears “to constitute a collectively punitive measure against Palestinians,” citing the words of Itamar Ben-Gvir, Israel’s minister of national security, who has said that “terrorists” deserve the most “stringent conditions.” Male detainees reported losing between about 55 and 120 pounds while in custody.

The OHCHR report comes as a highly controversial case involving detention abuse unfolds in Israel. The Israeli military is investigating nine soldiers for alleged “substantial abuse” of a Palestinian detainee who reportedly had to be hospitalized and could not walk after they attacked him. Far-right Israeli groups and political figures have protested the investigation.

Concern about Israeli detentions of Palestinians has been high for many months. In January, a Palestinian watchdog group issued a report condemning the forced disappearance of Gazans, and The New York Times found evidence of detainees being stripped and beaten.

Not all of the alarms about the situation in Israeli detentions centers have come from abroad. In February, Israeli’s public defender’s office issued a report calling for improved prison conditions, including for Palestinians. In April, local human rights groups called for a closure of the Sde Teiman military base detention center, due to its notorious conditions.

The calls were prompted in part by gruesome reports including amputations of detainees’ limbs due to handcuff injuries. The United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East then issued a damning report on detainee treatment, including of its own staff, some of whom had been detained and subjected to harsh interrogation.

Last week, Save the Children called for an end to the Israel’s arbitrary detainment of Palestinian minors, with a regional director saying that “these children are trapped, unable to move or see the sun, forced into crowded cells with appalling, unsanitary conditions, and subject to severe abuse and violence.”

Experts said Wednesday that the OHCHR report served mainly to confirm previous findings on Israeli detention centers. Neil Sammonds, a campaigner at the U.K.-based progressive advocacy group War on Want, said on social media that leaders of the new U.K. government haven’t spoken up about abuses at Israeli detention centers. He also said that the report could be used as evidence by the International Criminal Court, which has sought arrest warrants for both Israeli and Hamas leaders.

The new report also addresses abuses of Israelis held by Hamas and affiliated groups. The Palestinian militants killed roughly 1,200 people in a horrific set of attacks in southern Israel on October 7 and kidnapped about 250 Israelis, more than 100 of whom have since been released. Like Palestinian detainees, the released Israelis reported “appalling” conditions, the report says, including beatings, receiving surgery without anesthetic, and sexual and gender-based violence. The Israeli government has reported that 44 of the remaining hostages in Gaza have died.

Both Israel and Hamas have refused to allow the International Committee of the Red Cross to visit detainees or hostages. The OHCHR called for both sides to allow such independent monitoring.

Original article by EDWARD CARVER republished from Common Dreams under Creative Commons (CC BY-NC-ND 3.0).

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Continue ReadingUN Probe Finds ‘Appalling Acts’ of Torture Against Palestinians Detained by Israel

Ben-Gvir Endorses Trump, Says He’s More Likely to Back War on Iran

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Original article by BRETT WILKINS republished from Common Dreams under Creative Commons (CC BY-NC-ND 3.0). 

Far-right Israeli lawmaker Itamar Ben-Gvir delivers a speech following the exit polls of the 2022 Israeli general election on November 2, 2022.
 (Photo: Ilia Yefimovich/Picture Alliance via Getty Images)

The Israeli security minister, who leads the far-right Jewish Power party, accused the Biden administration of thwarting Israel’s victory against Hamas.

Israeli National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir endorsed former U.S. President Donald Trump—the 2024 Republican nominee—for the White House in an interview published Wednesday in which he accused the Biden administration of preventing Israel from winning its war on Gaza.

“I believe that with Trump, Israel will receive the backing to act against Iran,” Ben-Gvir, who heads the far-right Otzma Yehudit (Jewish Power) party, toldBloomberg. “With Trump, it will be clearer that enemies must be defeated.”

“A cabinet minister is supposed to maintain neutrality,” the 48-year-old minister conceded, “but that’s impossible to do after [U.S. President Joe] Biden.”

“The U.S. has always stood behind Israel in terms of armaments and weapons, yet this time the sense was that we were being reckoned with—that we were trying to be prevented from winning. That happened on Biden’s watch and fed Hamas with lots of energy,” added Ben-Gvir, who was convicted in 2007 of incitement to racism after he advocated the ethnic cleansing of Palestinians.

While Biden, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken, and other administration officials have decried Israel’s indiscriminate bombing of Gaza and high civilian casualties—at least 140,000 Palestinians killed, injured, or missing, according to local and international agencies—the U.S. has approved billions of dollars in new military aid and more than 100 arms sales to Israel since October.

During his White House tenure, Trump—who boasted that he “fought for Israel like no president ever before”—moved the U.S. Embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem and brokered the Abraham Accords between Israel and Arab nations Bahrain, Morocco, Sudan, and the United Arab Emirates.

Trump has said that Israel should “get the job done” in Gaza, while criticizing the Israel Defense Forces for posting videos showing its obliteration of the embattled Palestinian enclave.

“I don’t know why they released wartime shots like that. I guess it makes them look tough. But to me, it doesn’t make them look tough,” Trump said in April. “They’re losing the PR war. They’re losing it big. But they’ve got to finish what they started, and they’ve got to finish it fast, and we have to get on with life.”

While Trump says he wants a deal with Iran to prevent it from developing nuclear weapons, as president he unilaterally withdrew the U.S. from the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action—also known as the Iran nuclear deal—and oversaw a “maximum pressure” campaign against Tehran featuring deadly economic sanctions.

On the advice of Iran hawks in his administration including then-Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, Trump also ordered the January 2020 assassination of Iranian Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps Gen. Qasem Soleimani in Iraq.

Ben-Gvir’s interview was published as Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was set to address a joint meeting of U.S. Congress Wednesday in Washington, D.C. A growing number of Democratic lawmakers have called for not only a cease-fire in Gaza but also a suspension of U.S. military aid to Israel, whose conduct in the war is on trial for genocide at the International Court of Justice.

Dozens of Democratic lawmakers and Independent Sen. Bernie Sanders of Vermont have signaled they will skip Netanyahu’s speech. Vice President Kamala Harris, who is also the Senate president, said she will not preside over Wednesday’s session. Harris, who is the presumptive Democratic presidential nominee in the wake of Biden’s withdrawal from the race on Sunday, said she will meet privately with Netanyahu on Thursday.

Echoing calls from groups including CodePink and the Council on American Islamic Relations, Rep. Rashida Tlaib (D-Mich.) said this week that the prime minister should be arrested for war crimes and genocide.

Karim Khan, the International Criminal Court prosecutor, has applied for arrest warrants for Netanyahu, Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant, and three Hamas leaders for alleged war crimes including extermination committed on and after October 7.

Original article by BRETT WILKINS republished from Common Dreams under Creative Commons (CC BY-NC-ND 3.0). 

Continue ReadingBen-Gvir Endorses Trump, Says He’s More Likely to Back War on Iran

Israeli Politician Quotes Hitler to Argue for Resettlement of Gaza

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dizzy: It’s difficult to argue that they are not Fascists when they commit the very crimes created immediately after WWII to address Fascism, to ensure “never again” and quote Fascist Adolf Hitler. It’s difficult to see that supporting countries are not aiding and abetting and complicit in genocide and war crimes when such blatant calls for such crimes are and have been made.

Original article by OLIVIA ROSANE republished from Common Dreams under Creative Commons (CC BY-NC-ND 3.0).

Israeli far-right Zehout (identity) political party chairman Moshe Feiglin gives a joint press statement with Prime Minister and Likud Chairman Benjamin Netanyahu (unseen) in Ramat Gan, near the Israeli coastal city of Tel Aviv on August 29, 2019. (Photo: Jack Guez/AFP via Getty Images)

“In what kind of society can one openly advocate policies modeled on Hitler’s conduct? In a society that feels complete impunity due to America’s protection,” one foreign policy expert said.

Former Israeli Knesset member Moshe Feiglin quoted Adolf Hitler as he called for Israel to resettle the Gaza Strip and create a “Hebrew Gaza.”

Feiglin, who quit Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s Likud Party to found the right-wing Zehut Party and plans to challenge Likud in Israel’s next elections, made the comments during a panel discussion on Israel’s Channel 12 that was shared on social media on Sunday, as Middle East Eye reported.

“We are not guests in our country, this is our country, all of it…” Feiglin said, adding, “As Hitler said, ‘I cannot live if one Jew is left.’ We can’t live here if one ‘Islamo-Nazi’ remains in Gaza.”

Feiglin’s remarks earned widespread condemnation on social media.

“In what kind of society can one openly advocate policies modeled on Hitler’s conduct?” asked Trita Parsi, the executive vice president of the Quincy Institute for Responsible Statecraft. “In a society that feels complete impunity due to America’s protection.”

Former Greek Finance Minister and leader of the pan-European leftist political party DiEM25 Yanis Varoufakis wrote that “the evidence of genocidal intentions is mounting” and asked, “When will the ICC [International Criminal Court] act?”

Israel has killed at least 37,337 people and injured 85,299 in its war on Gaza since October 7, when Hamas carried out a lethal attack against southern Israel, killing around 1,100 people and taking more than 240 hostage. Prior to the attack, Israel had maintained a 16-year blockade of the narrow enclave.

South Africa brought a case before the International Court of Justice accusing Israel of genocide in Gaza, citing the vast destruction of its bombing campaign as well as statements made by high-level Israeli politicians, including Netanyahu, that portray all Gazans as complicit in the October 7 attacks. Several human rights experts and scholars have also concluded that Israel is committing genocide.

This is not the first time that Feiglin, who served in the Knesset from 2013 to 2015, has called for the expulsion of Palestinians from Gaza.

“We need a different prime minister who is willing to stick his neck out to win. Zehut will provide, whenever elections happen, such a candidate,” he told supporters in January, according to Middle East Eye. “For us, the war in Gaza is not merely a defensive war. It’s a war of liberation, the liberation of the land from its occupiers.”

In an October 2023 interview with Al Jazeera, he also advocated for the “complete destruction of Gaza, before invading it… Destruction like Dresden and Hiroshima, without a nuclear weapon.”

Zehut’s 2019 platform included the cancellation of the Oslo Accords with the Palestinians, according to Haaretz.

“Don’t talk to me about international law, because there is not such a thing. You know, the minute you use the word ‘Palestinian,’ you stop saying the truth. Because there is no Palestinian nation, and they know it,” Feiglin said that same year.

Other currently governing Israeli politicians have also called for the expulsion of Palestinians from Gaza.

Israeli National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir said in January that the Israeli government should “encourage the migration” of Palestinians out of Gaza.

Later the same month, Ben-Gvir and Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich attended a right-wing conference calling for the “resettlement” of Gaza.

Original article by OLIVIA ROSANE republished from Common Dreams under Creative Commons (CC BY-NC-ND 3.0).

Continue ReadingIsraeli Politician Quotes Hitler to Argue for Resettlement of Gaza