- Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich advocated for the demolition of cities and refugee camps in Gaza, citing biblical references, while PM Netanyahu invoked similar rhetoric.
- CAIR highlight Israel’s breaches of international law and human rights.
In the most recent instance of a prominent Israeli figure advocating for the eradication of Gaza and its 2.3 million Palestinian inhabitants, Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich urged for the demolition of cities and refugee camps within the besieged enclave.
“There are no half measures,” said Smotrich at a government meeting. “Rafah, Deir al-Balah, Nuseirat—total annihilation.”
“‘You will blot out the remembrance of Amalek from under heaven,'” he added, quoting the biblical story of the nation of Amalek, whose people God commanded the Israelites to exterminate and which right-wing Israeli leaders have long invoked to justify the killing of Palestinians.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu also invoked Amalek in the initial stages of Israel’s recent escalation against Gaza. Smotrich’s remarks coincided with efforts by him and other government figures to urge Netanyahu to proceed with a planned assault on the southern city of Rafah. This city has witnessed over 1.5 million residents displaced, while other urban centres across Gaza have faced destruction at the hands of Israeli forces.
Ibrahim Hooper, the national communications director for the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR), urged President Joe Biden to cease his criticism of thousands of U.S. college students advocating for a cease-fire and an end to military aid for Israel, and instead focus his criticism on the Israeli government.
“In case the Israeli government’s genocidal intent in Gaza was unclear to anyone despite its daily war crimes against the Palestinian people, Israeli Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich’s words should serve as another wake-up call,” asserted Hooper.
“The intent of the Netanyahu government has always been Palestinian land without Palestinians, and violence has always been the route to achieve that heinous goal. Instead of condemning college students, President Biden must condemn Israeli leaders for making and acting on their genocidal threats.”
“Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich, a member of the security cabinet, ought to be fired immediately over his latest remarks,” said an article in Haaretz on Tuesday night. This coincided with police in New York storming Columbia University to make arrests. “That’s how any properly run country would act, and all the more so a country against which the International Court of Justice in The Hague has issued provisional measures requiring it to refrain from genocide, including one requiring it to deal properly with incitement to genocide.”
On Tuesday, CAIR also highlighted that five units within Israel’s security forces have been accused of perpetrating a “serious breach of human rights,” as indicated by an analysis conducted by the U.S. State Department.
“Our nation’s repeated claim that it supports international law and human rights,” remarked national executive director Nihad Awad, “is a cruel illusion.”
