Erase "Gaza Strip from the face of the earth": Israel in the words of its founders and leaders - Part 2
The dehumanisation of Palestinians has been a constant feature of Israeli leadership since the founding of the settler colonial apartheid state up until the present.
This article is the second in a series. Click here for the first part.
The Israeli government’s genocidal campaign in the Gaza Strip has so far killed over 7,000 civilians, half of them children. The ongoing industrial-scale slaughter of the caged Palestinians by the Israelis has been cheered on by their allies, who like to call themselves the “leaders of the free world” without the slightest hint of irony. The so-called “leaders of the free world,” who harp about “never again,” have turned a blind eye as the one-time survivors of a genocidal campaign perpetuate the same atrocities over another group of people.
The Israelis have accompanied their indiscriminate killing of innocent children and women in Gaza with the vilest of comments about them. Their Prime Minister, former Prime Ministers, Parliamentarians, and other leaders appear to be in a sordid competition to make the most sickening comment about their victims.
The Palestinians have been labelled everything from “human animals” to “the children of darkness” to “Nazis”. But such dehumanising rhetoric is not surprising. The Israelis have long been vilifying the natives whose land they stole to establish their settler colonial apartheid state.
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“We are fighting against human animals.” [Source.]
— Yoav Gallant, Defence Minister of Israel
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“Are you seriously asking me about Palestinian civilians? What is wrong with you? We’re fighting Nazis.” [Source.]
— Naftali Bennett, former Prime Minister of Israel
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“Now we all have one common goal — erasing the Gaza Strip from the face of the earth.” [Source.]
— Nissim Vaturi, Deputy Speaker of the Knesset (Israel’s parliament)
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“You must remember what Amalek has done to you, says our Holy Bible.” [Source]
— Benjamin Netanyahu, Prime Minister of Israel
[Bible 1 Samuel 15:3: “Now go and smite Amalek, and utterly destroy all that they have, and spare them not; but slay both man and woman, infant and suckling, ox and sheep, camel and ass.”]
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[Deleted tweet from Benjamin Netanyahu]
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“When we have settled the land, all the Arabs will be able to do about it will be to scurry around like drugged roaches in a bottle.” [Source.]
— Rafael Eitan, former Chief of Staff of the Israeli Army and a Haganah terrorist
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“The Palestinian threat harbours cancer-like attributes that have to be severed. There are all kinds of solutions to cancer. Some say it’s necessary to amputate organs, but at the moment, I am applying chemotherapy.”[Source.]
— Moshe Ya'alon, former Chief of Staff of the Israeli Army
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“Neither Jewish ethics nor Jewish tradition can disqualify terrorism as a means of combat.” [Source.]
— Yitzhak Shamir, former Prime Minister of Israel
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