Quotes From Israel State Officials
I realize I haven’t posted much of late, but I thought I would provide some excerpts from South Africas Genocide Application , while I overcome my apathy
https://www.icj-cij.org/sites/default/files/case-related/192/192-20231228-app-01-00-en.pdf#page=72
Evidence of Israeli State officials’ specific intent (‘dolus specialis’) to commit and persist in committing genocidal acts or to fail to prevent them has been significant and overt since October 2023.
— Prime Minister of Israel:
On 7 October 2023, in a televised address by the Government Press Office, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu promised to
“operate forcefully everywhere”.
On 13 October 2023, he confirmed that
“[w]e are striking our enemies with unprecedented might . . .”.
On 15 October 2023, when Israeli airstrikes had already killed over 2,670 Palestinians, including 724 children, the Prime Minister stated that Israeli soldiers
“understand the scope of the mission” and stand ready “to defeat the bloodthirsty monsters who have risen against [Israel] to destroy us”.
On 16 October 2023, in a formal address to the Israeli Knesset, he described situation as
“a struggle between the children of light and the children of darkness, between humanity and the law of the jungle”,
On 3 November 2023, in a letter to Israeli soldiers and officers also published on the platform ‘X’ (formerly Twitter); the letter asserted that:
“[t]his is the war between the sons of light and the sons of darkness. We will not let up on our mission until the light overcomes the darkness — the good will defeat the extreme evil that threatens us and the entire world.”
The Israeli Prime Minister also returned to the theme in his ‘Christmas message’, stating:
“we’re facing monsters, monsters who murdered children in front of their parents . . . This is a battle not only of Israel against these barbarians, it’s a battle of civilization against barbarism”.
On 28 October 2023, as Israeli forces prepared their land invasion of Gaza, the Prime Minister invoked the Biblical story of the total destruction of Amalek by the Israelites, stating:
“you must remember what Amalek has done to you, says our Holy Bible. And we do remember”.
The Prime Minister referred again to Amalek in the letter sent on 3 November 2023 to Israeli soldiers and officers.The relevant biblical passage reads:
Now go, attack Amalek, and proscribe all that belongs to him. Spare no one, but kill alike men and women, infants and sucklings, oxen and sheep, camels and asses
President of Israel:
On 12 October 2023, President Isaac Herzog made clear that Israel was not distinguishing between militants and civilians in Gaza, stating in a press conference to foreign media — in relation Palestinians in Gaza, over one million of whom are children:
“It’s an entire nation out there that is responsible. It’s not true this rhetoric about civilians not aware not involved. It’s absolutely not true. ... and we will fight until we break their backbone.”
On 15 October 2023, echoing the words of Prime Minister Netanyahu, the President told foreign media that
“we will uproot evil so that there will be good for the entire region and the world.”
The Israeli President is one of many Israelis to have handwritten ‘messages’ on bombs to be dropped on Gaza
Israeli Minister of Defence:
On 9 October 2023, Defence Minister Yoav Gallant in an Israeli Army ‘situation update’ advised that Israel was
“imposing a complete siege on Gaza. No electricity, no food, no water, no fuel. Everything is closed. We are fighting human animals and we are acting accordingly.
He also informed troops on the Gaza border that he had released “all the restraints”, stating in terms that
“Gaza won’t return to what it was before. We will eliminate everything. If it doesn’t take one day, it will take a week. It will take weeks or even months, we will reach all places.”
He further announced that Israel was moving to “a full- scale response” and that he had “removed every restriction” on Israeli forces.
Israeli Minister for National Security:
On 10 November 2023, Itamar Ben-Gvir clarified the government’s position in a televised address, stating to be clear, when we say that Hamas should be destroyed, it also means those who celebrate, those who support, and those who hand out candy-they’re all terrorists, and they should also be destroyed.
Israeli Minister of Energy and Infrastructure: ‘Tweeting’ on 13 October 2023, Israel Katz stated:
“All the civilian population in Gaza is ordered to leave immediately. We will win. They will not receive a drop of water or a single battery until they leave the world.”
On 12 October 2023, he ‘tweeted’:
“Humanitarian aid to Gaza? No electrical switch will be turned on, no water hydrant will be opened and no fuel truck will enter until the Israeli abductees are returned home. Humanitarianism for humanitarianism. And no one will preach us morality
Israeli Minister of Finance:
On 8 October 2023, Bezalel Smotrich stated at a meeting of the Israeli Cabinet that
“we need to deal a blow that hasn’t been seen in 50 years and take down Gaza.”
Israeli Minister of Heritage:
On 1 November 2023, Amichai Eliyahu posted on Facebook:
“The north of the Gaza Strip, more beautiful than ever. Everything is blown up and flattened, simply a pleasure for the eyes ... We must talk about the day after. In my mind, we will hand over lots to all those who fought for Gaza over the years and to those evicted from Gush Katif” [a former Israeli settlement].
He later argued against humanitarian aid as
“we wouldn’t hand the Nazis humanitarian aid”, and “there is no such thing as uninvolved civilians in Gaza”.
He also posited a nuclear attack on the Gaza Strip.
Israeli Minister of Agriculture:
On 11 November 2023, Avi Dichter in a television interview recalled the Nakba of 1948, in which over 80 percent of the Palestinian population of the new Israeli State was forced from or fled their homes, stating that
“we are now actually rolling out the Gaza Nakba”.
Deputy Speaker of the Knesset and Member of the Foreign Affairs and Security Committee:
On 7 October 2023, Nissim Vaturi ‘tweeted’ that:
“now we all have one common goal — erasing the Gaza Strip from the face of the earth. Those who are unable will be replaced.”
Similar statements have been made by Israeli army officials, advisers and spokespersons, and others engaging with Israeli troops being deployed in Gaza:
Israeli Army Coordinator of Government Activities in the Territories (‘COGAT’):
On 9 October 2023, in a video statement addressed to Hamas and Gaza residents, published by
COGAT’s official channel, Major General Ghassan Alian warned:
“Hamas became ISIS and
the citizens of Gaza are celebrating instead of being horrified. Human animals are dealt with accordingly. Israel has imposed a total blockade on Gaza, no electricity, no water, just damage. You wanted hell, you will get hell.”
Israeli Army Reservist Major General, former Head of the Israeli National Security Council, and adviser to the Defence Minister:
On 7 October 2023, Giora Eiland, describing the Israeli order to cut off water and electricity to Gaza, wrote in an online journal:
“This is what Israel has begun to do , we cut the supply of energy, water and diesel to the Strip . . .
But it’s not enough. In order to make the siege effective, we have to prevent others from giving assistance to Gaza . . . The people should be told that they have two choices; to stay and to starve, or to leave. If Egypt and other countries prefer that these people will perish in Gaza, this is their choice.”
On the same day, he asserted in a national newspaper that
“when you are
at war with another country you don't feed them, you don't provide them electricity or gas or water or anything else . . . A country can be attacked in a much broader way, to bring the country to the brink of dysfunction. This is the necessary outcome of events” in Gaza
He has repeatedly asserted the benefits for Israel of the creation of a humanitarian crisis in Gaza, stating that
“Israel has no interest in the Gaza Strip being rehabilitated and this is an important point that needs to be made clear to the Americans”, and that “if we ever want to see the hostages alive, the only way is to create a severe humanitarian crisis in Gaza”.
He has indicated that water should be targeted, noting
that water in Gaza
“comes from wells with salt water unfit for consumption. They have water treatment plants, Israel should hit those plants. When the entire world says we have gone insane and this is a humanitarian disaster — we will say, it’s not an end, it’s a means.”
In a Times radio interview on 12 October 2023, he reiterated the army should:
“Create such a huge pressure on Gaza, that Gaza will become an area where people cannot live. People cannot live, until Hamas is destroyed, which means that Israel not only stops to supply energy, diesel, water, food ... as we did in the last twenty years ... but we should prevent any possible assistance by others, and to create in Gaza such a terrible, unbearable situation, that can last weeks and months”.
Giora Eiland has repeatedly been given a media platform to call for Gaza to be made uninhabitable, declaring
“the State of Israel has no choice but to make Gaza a place that is temporarily, or permanently, impossible to live in.”
In an interview on 6 November 2023, he suggested that,
“if there is an intention for a military action at Shifa Hospital, which I think is inescapable, I hope that the head of the CIA got an explanation of why this is necessary, and why the US must ultimately back even an operation like this, even if there are thousands of bodies of civilians in the streets afterward.”
Further he proposed that
“Israel needs to create a humanitarian crisis in Gaza, compelling tens of thousands or even hundreds of thousands to seek refuge in Egypt or the Gulf . . . Gaza will become a place where no human being can exist.”
Echoing the words of President Herzog, he has repeatedly underscored that there should be no distinction between Hamas combatants and Palestinian civilians, saying:
“Who are the ‘poor’ women of Gaza? They are all the mothers, sisters or wives of Hamas murderers. On the one hand, they are part of the infrastructure that supports the organization, and on the other hand, if they experience a humanitarian disaster, then it can be assumed that some of the Hamas fighters and the more junior commanders will begin to understand that the war is futile . . . The international community warns us of a humanitarian disaster in Gaza and of severe epidemics. We must not shy away from this, as difficult as that may be. After all, severe epidemics in the south of the Gaza Strip will bring victory closer . . . It is precisely its civil collapse that will bring the end of the war closer. When senior Israeli figures say in the media ‘It's either us or them’ we should clarify the question of who is ‘them’. ‘They’ are not only Hamas fighters with weapons, but also all the ‘civilian’ officials, including hospital administrators and school administrators, and also the entire Gaza population who enthusiastically supported Hamas and cheered on its atrocities on October 7th.”
— Israeli Army reservist “motivational speech”:
On 11 October 2023, 95-year old Israeli army reservist Ezra Yachin — a veteran of the Deir Yassin massacre during the 1948 Nakba — reportedly called up for reserve duty to
“boost morale” amongst Israeli troops ahead of the ground invasion, was broadcast on social media inciting other soldiers to genocide as follows, while being driven around in an Israeli army vehicle, dressed in Israeli army fatigues:
“Be triumphant and finish them off and don’t leave anyone behind. Erase the memory of them. Erase them, their families, mothers and children. These animals can no longer live . . . Every Jew with a weapon should go out and kill them. If you have an Arab neighbour, don't wait, go to his home and shoot him . . . We want to invade, not like before, we want to enter and destroy what’s in front of us, and destroy houses, then destroy the one after it. With all of our forces, complete destruction, enter and destroy. As you can see, we will witness things we’ve never dreamed of. Let them drop bombs on them and erase them.”
— Head of the Israeli army’s Air Operations Group:
On 28 October 2023, Lieutenant colonel Gilad Kinan described the Air Force as
“work[ing] together with all the bodies in the IDF when the goal is clear — to destroy everything that has been touched by the hand of Hamas”.
— Commander in the 2908th Battalion of the Israeli army: In a video posted online on 21 December 2023, Yair Ben David said that the Israeli army had
“entered Beit Hanoun and did there as Simeon and Levi did in Nablus,” and that “the entire Gaza should resemble Beit Hanoun”, referring to the city in northern Gaza which has been entirely devastated by the Israeli army..The biblical passage in issue reads: “On the third day, when they were in pain, Simeon and Levi, two of Jacob’s sons, brothers of Dinah, took each his sword, came upon the city unmolested, and slew all the males”.
— Israeli Army Colonel, Deputy Head of COGAT: speaking in a video filmed in Beit Lahia — one of the areas of Gaza which appears to have suffered particularly severe levels of destruction — and broadcast on Israeli television on 4 November 2023, Colonel Yogev Bar- Sheshet stated:
“[w]hoever returns here, if they return here after, will find scorched earth. No houses, no agriculture, no nothing. They have no future;”
another Army Colonel recorded in the same video, Colonel Erez Eshel (Reserve), also commented that:
“Vengeance is a great value. There is vengeance over what they did to us ... This place will be a fallow land. They will not be able to live here”.
— Israeli army soldiers: Israeli soldiers in uniform have been filmed on 5 December 2023 dancing, chanting and singing
“May their village burn, May Gaza be erased”;
and, two days later, on a separate occasion inside Gaza on 7 December 2023, dancing, singing and chanting,
“we know our motto: there are no uninvolved civilians” and “to wipe off the seed of Amalek”.
Notably, the second video of soldiers chanting that there are “no uninvolved citizens” in Gaza and that they will “wipe off the seed of Amalek” was filmed on 7 December 2023. By that date, 17,177 Palestinians in Gaza had been killed — an estimated 70 per cent of whom were women and children.
7-8 December 2023 was particularly devasting for Palestinians, with 350 people killed in the space of 24 hours — approximately one Palestinian in Gaza killed every four minutes.
This genocidal rhetoric of governmental and military officials is also widespread and commonplace amongst non-cabinet members of the Israeli Knesset (‘MKs’) who have repeatedly called for Gaza to be “wiped out”, “flatten[ed]”, “eras[ed]”, and “[c]rush[ed] . . . on all its inhabitants”
In an Israeli news interview, one former MK called for all Palestinians in Gaza to be killed saying:
“I tell you, in Gaza without exception, they are all terrorists, sons of dogs. They must be exterminated, all of them killed. We will flatten Gaza, turn them to dust, and the army will cleanse the area. Then we will start building new areas, for us, above all, for our security.”