• ‘Do you have any other solutions?’ The horrifying reply given by Israeli ambassador Tzipi Hotovely in the midst of the ongoing genocide in Gaza.
• The series of lies Ambassador Hotovely has implicated during her time as ambassador
Tzipi Hotovely, the current ambassador for Israel to the UK, has spewed a series of lies and exaggerations both before and throughout the start of this genocide in Gaza. However, there has not been any statement she has made over the years that has been as genocidal as the claim she so unsympathetically made on air on Wednesday. On Wednesday, presenter Iain Dale on LBC radio had been interviewing Mrs Hotovely in light of the continuous genocide in Gaza, in which the ambassador claimed that,
‘every school, every mosque, and every second house has an access to tunnel’.
Presenter Iain dale responded with an element of shock in his tone, saying, ‘That’s an argument to destroy the whole of Gaza’, in which the ambassador confidently said,
‘Do you have another solution?’
This statement from the ambassador is not just the propagation of mass slaughter in Gaza but also the justification for the indiscriminate destruction of the entirety of Gaza and, therefore, the justification of a mass genocide.
Just imagine for a moment President Zelensky of Ukraine saying that in order to stop Russian aggression, the entirety of Moscow should be destroyed. Although the comparison cannot be made to Gaza, as Gaza has always been on the receiving end when it comes to persecution and tyranny, the underlying magnitude of aggression can still be seen as similar. This would be shocking, and even the US and its allies have expressed concern about Ukraine attacking deep into Russian territory in the first place. Yet if the ambassador for Israel mentions this live on air, not a single US or western diplomat or power-wielding politician has the urge to mention it or talk about it. This highlights the whitewashing of Israeli extremism that lies within the government of Israel by the lawmakers and power wielders of western civilization. What’s more known yet should be more shocking is that a genocide is already taking place in Gaza, yet not a single western government has called the atrocities taking place in Gaza a genocide. When the ambassador for Israel implies that what is going on in Gaza is much-needed and describes it as a genocide, it should become apparent that her admission of genocide is enough of a testament to call the atrocities for what they are. Unfortunately, the blind eye shown to Israel by western politicians has led it to act with impunity to such an extent that it believes what it does is humane and therefore has the right to call for an outright genocide, something that even on October 7th they feared to say in public. The conditioning of the Israeli mind to believe that they are in a righteous battle, propagated by the west, has made them more confident and less shy to accept and talk about the ethnic cleansing that they are currently carrying out. Tzipi Hotovely is just one of many who are a testament to that.
The series of lies and genocidal remarks made by Tzipi Hotovely
Tzipi Hotovely received her role as Israeli ambassador to the UK in August 2020 after resigning from her role as Deputy Foreign Minister earlier that year. She has always been a strong supporter of illegal Israeli settlements in the West Bank and even called for the unilateral complete annexation of the West Bank, something that the British government has repeatedly rejected as it violates international law. During a speech in 2015, she said, “This land is ours. All of it is ours. We did not come here to apologise for that.” This extremist colonial mentality and ambition that had been harboured throughout Hotovely’s long political career is something that was addressed by the British Jewish community before her appointment as ambassador. A petition by left-wing British Jews called on the UK government to reject her appointment because of her hardline ‘racist and inflammatory behaviour’ throughout her political career. The petition garnered more than 1800 signatures, but unfortunately, after a cabinet discussion, Hotovely was accepted by the British government to be the next ambassador to the UK for Israel.
Lie number 1
In 2020, at a Jewish event organised by the board of deputies on British Jews, Hotovely was asked about the 1948 Nakba, in which 700,000 Palestinians were forced to flee their homes due to Israeli Zionist militias and later the Israeli military. This was half of Palestine’s entire population at the time. Forced displacement under international law is a war crime, and this move by Israel was condemned by the UN the same year. Hotovely rejects that the Nakba had even taken place during the event and says she believes it is ‘a very strong and very popular Arab lie’.
Lie number 2
After the heroic counter-offensive that the Palestinian resistance showed on October 7th, the same month, Sky News asked Hotovely if there was a humanitarian crisis in Gaza. Hotovely categorically rejected any idea that there was a crisis in Gaza, and before Sky News presenter Kay Burley could interject, Hotovely used the events that took place on October 7th to change the topic and the trajectory of the conversation itself. Before October 7th, Gaza was subjected to a blockade in which not enough food, clean water, medicine, or basic raw materials could get through. According to Oxfam, less than 4% of the water in Gaza was drinkable, and the materials and equipment to harvest clean water were mainly inaccessible because of the blockade. There was only 8–4 hours of electricity supply a day, which meant that many had to regularly use candles to light their homes, something that was hazardous and dangerous for children and adults alike. The fishing zone that Israel has placed on Gaza has meant that fishermen cannot access most of the fishing waters that were agreed upon through the Oslo accords. In 2020, the poverty rate in Gaza was 56% and the unemployment rate was 49%. Health facilities had struggled to get by because of the lack of essential medicine that was coming through Gaza. Multiple charities and organisations had labelled the situation in Gaza as a humanitarian crisis long before October 7th.
Lie number 3
In early December, in another Sky News interview, Hotovely claimed that with the intense bombardment from Israel, there was a safe zone in southern Gaza named Mawasi. She claimed that Mawasi had shelters created by international organisations and Israel for all the Palestinians in Gaza and that humanitarian aid was being provided along with them. Sky News themselves had obtained footage of Mawasi following the interview and found a desolate area with sand dunes next to the Mediterranean Sea with no aid agency tents, no food kitchens, and no help. This was again another lie by the Israeli ambassador to justify Israeli actions in Gaza and to make it seem like their aggression is only directed at the Palestinian resistance and not at civilians. However, even if we take this idea of safe zones out of the picture, we find that 70% of Gaza’s dead are women and children. This alone is enough evidence to suggest that Israel has no goal or ambition on isolating attacks on the Palestinian resistance but rather on the entirety of the people of Gaza.
Is this surprising?
Israel has lied multiple times throughout their onslaught on Gaza with the claim that beneath Al-Shifa hospital is a Hamas HQ to the claim that an Arabic calendar is the list of names of Hamas individuals. There are many lies, crimes and claims made by Israel that many Israelis believe even after being debunked. However it is evident that in order to propagate these lies the Israeli government has likely instructed it’s ambassadors, ministers and associates to disseminate these to make it seem it is legitimate.
