Israeli Official Incitement: August 2018

Israeli Official Incitement between August 1 – August 31, 2018  

This report includes examples of recent inciting statements made by top Israeli officials and military personnel to justify the continued Israeli assault on the Gaza Strip. It highlights inciting statements against Palestinian prisoners and refugees, the Palestinian President and leadership, as well as against the indigenous Palestinian citizens of Israel. 

MK (Likud) Anat Berko (Facebook, August 17, 2018)

“Does the Zionist camp take into consideration that there are 500 ISIS individuals’ in Gaza today? Our main concern is to bring calm to the western Negev, there is no way to have a direct settlement with Hamas, only through Egyptian mediation! It is always possible to wage a war and topple towers in Gaza, or destroy tunnels and weapons’ storages….”

Minister of Education and Minister of Diaspora Affairs, MK (Jewish Home) Naftali Bennett, (Mako, August 14, 2018)

“This relative calm and the provision of facilitations is a gift for terrorism. The proposed plan to the small cabinet might lead to the emergence of another Hizbullah on borders of the strip. It is forbidden to give prizes to terrorism and terrorists without the return of our kidnapped sons”

MK (Yesh Atid) Yair Lapid (Twitter, August 9, 2018)

“I arrived today to Sderot, the people of the city didn’t sleep at night. It is unacceptable that the children of Sderot sleep in fortified shelters while Sinwar sleeps in his bed. In a short time the army must launch against them an attack with all its might, without any hesitation and without thinking, and without talking about any understandings…”

MK (Jewish Home), Bezalel Smotrich (Twitter, August 9, 2018)

“Ceasefire was a difficult mistake. Also a ground invasion without any value was also a difficult mistake. Either we raid to occupy and remain (we adjust the tragedy of Oslo: Gaza first) or we strike from the air and completely destroy everything that is related to Hamas in the strip…until they beg us to stop and surrender…this is the only way to bring silence to the people of the south”

MK (Likud)   Yoav Kisch‏,  (Twitter, August 8, 2018)

“In my opinion, there is little chance for reaching a settlement. The security apparatuses, under the guidance of the Cabinet, should escalate and work with all its might against Hamas. This means reinforcing our forces and eliminating terrorist cells. We are not disturbed by terrorists, those killers, but we will make this our target. Let us remove our gloves. If we do that, the chances for a settlement will be higher”

MK (Likud) Miri Regev (Facebook, August 2, 2018)

“The calculation must be clear, if our sons are living in horror, then Hamas must live in horror as well. We must return to the assassination policy against leaders of terrorist organizations.”

MK (Likud) Oren Hazan (Twitter, August 2, 2018)

“For a moment I wanted to compliment the defense minister for his decision to close the crossings for goods, but then it was a slip off the tongue on those flying balloons "they are children." So no, they are not children. They are dangerous terrorists, who do not only want to burn the fields – but to burn us alive and we must liquidate them.  Lieberman wake up - the south is burning, and if you do not put an end to it, it won’t end!"

Elor Azaria in an interview with Kipa website, August 29, 2018

“Where is the killing? He is not a Palestinian he is a terrorist.”

In another interview with Israel Hayom, cited by Ha’aretz newspaper on August 28, 2018, Azaria said:

“I have no doubt. Bring me back to those same seconds of the incident in Hebron – I would have done exactly the same thing. Because that is what needed to be done."

"I have no remorse. I am completely at peace with myself. I acted as needed. I went with my own [inner] truth. I acted in the most proper way possible and what happened afterwards [his trial and conviction] should not have happened."

“Everything led to a moment's instinct, everything came together and I acted exactly as I had been taught from the beginning of my training as a fighter. I fired one shot. The terrorist's head was the only exposed limb [sic] and I learned in medic training that when the head is injured, it affects the whole body."

Minister of Public Security, Strategic Affairs and Minister of Information, MK (Likud) Gilad Edan (103 FM, August 30,  2018)

“The cabinet does not deal with terrorists who are only in jails, but also with the terrorists in Gaza, we have halted earlier the family visits from Gaza strip, and I have formed a committee to examine means to worsen the conditions of prisoners in jails in accordance with International law, Hamas prisoners are the ones who want to be in jails…”

MK (Likud) Yoav Kisch (Mako, August 8, 2018)

“Discussion over the situation of the Palestinian prisoners will be tackled in the committee’s meeting, we call upon prisons’ authority to attend the session, it is impossible to give the security prisoners; the terrorists’ conditions of recreation”

Against Ahed Al-Tamimi: MK (Likud) Oren Hazan wrote on (Twitter, August 2, 2018)

“Parties, meals of corruption, education, sounds like she is in an American college, only men are missing there! When I hear the conditions that this despicable terrorist experienced in prison, I understand why a terrorist in prison is costing us NIS 100,000 annually. The parties cost lots of money, believe me I know what I am talking about.”

Against Palestinian Poet Darin Tatour (who lives in Al-Reineh town inside Israel): Minister of Sports and Culture, MK (Likud) Miri Regev wrote on (Facebook, August 2, 2018)

 “This is how we should act with anyone who transforms the freedom of speech into the freedom of incitement. I applaud the court's decision against Darin Tatour, who was convicted of incitement to violence and supporting terrorism through her poems. Now she goes to the same place as those who asked to be martyrs and were arrested. It is good that she will be now behind the bars.”

MK (Likud) Anat Berko ( Facebook , August 6, 2018)

“Stop the Palestinians lies”

The “return claim" is the next landmine that must be dismantled, President Trump and the Prime Minister Netanyahu are working on that!

For more than two years I have been working to abolish UNRWA, which consolidates the "Palestinian genetic asylum." From every podium, I talk about the Palestinians' desire to eradicate the State of Israel, also demographically.' I have brought this matter to the attention of the Prime Minister. I met with European parliamentarians as well US senators and congressmen. I have even submitted a research document with photos of Nikki Hailey the Ambassador to the United Nations.

It is interesting to know that there is lack of knowledge regarding the existence of a refugees agency in the UN for all the refugees in the world, and for Palestinians there is a special agency - UNRWA, which became a human force company, a source of employment as well as an incitement source to Hamas. Therefore we must put an end to this. There is no "return," because we will not commit suicide on the national level even if there are mad people who believe in this.

The nation-state law strengthens the identity of the State of Israel as the nation-state of the Jewish people.

There are many real refugees in the Middle East and we must help them.

Among the Palestinians, there are less than 20,000 real refugees. But look at this hypocrisy. Abu Mazen in his speech before the UN invented the number of six million in order to defy the Jewish people and harm the memorial of the holocaust.

After President Trump recognized Jerusalem as the capital of Israel, now it is time to say that the whole world is fed up with the Palestinian lie, and thus the abolition of UNRWA will be a correct step to attach Palestinians to the reality and annul the "claim of return"!”

MK (Jewish Home) Moti Yogev (Twitter, August 16, 2018)

“It has been proven again that Abu Mazen and the Palestinian Authority were only a stumbling stone in the Gaza Strip and all the illusions of the left parties in Israel in regards to handing over Gaza Strip to the Palestinian authority is negative and unrealistic. In the Arab urban territories in Gaza, Arab leaders from Gaza should rule over.”

MK (Likud) Amir Ohana (Twitter, August 15, 2018)

 “So now, he is the one paying salaries and grants to the killers of the three months old Hadas Fogel, who was murdered (with most of her family) only because she is Jewish, he is campaigning against the nation-state law….”

MK (Likud)Yisrael Katz, ( Israel Hayom, August 13, 2018)

"Any attempt to restore Abbas to Gaza and connect Gaza to the Palestinian Authority in Judea and Samaria via a 'secure corridor' that will traverse Israel will present a direct threat to the security of Israel and the demographic balance between Israel and the Palestinians.”

MK (Likud) Anat Berko (Facebook, August 27, 2018)

“It is time to remove our gloves from the joint list. We start with the one who was the personal advisor of Yasser Arafat MK Ahmad Al-Tibi, Al-Tibi was in contact with our enemies in the world, despite that he serves as deputy Knesset head. It is clear for you that we are talking about an honorable position, I mean the deputy Knesset head. It is time to dismiss him from office! Al-Tibi and his colleagues continue to serve those between Ramallah and Jerusalem, and no doubt that there is “conflict of interests” between Palestinian parliament and Israeli parliament! The Joint list spares no time to announce its hatred to Israel and it works against it by speaking from every podium around the world. The Arab MKs use their diplomatic passports to participate in trips that call for boycotting Israel, it is time to boycott them as well.

I will work to dismiss MK Al-Tibi from his position, and I will also work against those opponents to the nation-state law, those who are working against it in the UN…I will also work to impose fine on them and harm their salaries…”

MK (Likud) Oren Hazan ( Facebook August 21, 2018)

“ I compared between the photos of the demonstration in Rabin square two weeks ago and those photos of the terrorist funeral held yesterday in Um Al-Fahem, the only difference is the location of the demonstration nothing else..share this video and prove to all that Um Al-Fahem is a nest of poisonous wasps full of warms living in the heart of the state. The government should impose its sovereignty by demolishing the house of the terrorist, expel his family and arrest all the inciters, and find a real solution to the germ of terrorism that is spreading among us.”

“Defense” Minister, Avigdor Lieberman (Facebook, August 21, 2018)

“You are still asking why Um Al-Fahem must be part of Palestine and not Israel? What we have seen yesterday of tens of youth participating in the funeral of the terrorist with Palestinian flags and chanting ‘with our souls and blood we will redeem you martyr’, is enough to answer your question, the plan that I have proposed some years ago, the land and population swap , is now more appropriate than ever”

Knesset Speaker, Yuli Edelstein (Twitter, August 11, 2018) 

“This evening it was proved again that the struggle led by Arab Knesset members is not against the nation-state law, but against the existence of the State of Israel. I regret to say that they are dragging the Arab Israeli public again into such an ugly inciting demonstration.” 

MK (Likud) Miki Zohar (Twitter, August 11, 2018)

“The demonstration tonight shows us clearly that it was important and good to enact the nation-state law. It is now our duty to remove the flags of the enemy States to become outside the law.”

MK (Likud) Oren Hazan (Twitter, August 11, 2018)

“Anyone who has not understood the importance of the nation-state law should take a look today at the square that is full of hatred and will receive the answer. Tel Aviv was occupied and the flags of the Palestinian enemy were flapping in its center. This is a violation of Israel’s sovereignty and an incitement against the state. I call upon the Prime Minister as well as the defense minister to dispatch police units to Rabin square and remove the flags of terrorism and stop this contempt.”

Moshe Bogie Ya'alon‏, former "Defense" Minister ( Twitter, August 11, 2018)

“My flag is blue and white-the flag of Israel. Israel is the nation-state of the Jewish people- Jewish and democratic, whose Jewish citizens and minorities are equal. Minorities who wish to express their national identities should do that in the neighboring countries, where they can raise their flags. Israel has one flag: the Israeli flag.”

MK (Yisrael Beitenu) Oded Forer, (Twitter, August 11, 2018)

 “[Tibi] has the support of the left, and while the state Israel pays him salary, he is working to negate its existence while the PLO flag flapping behind his back. Who raises this flag, supports a struggle against Israel and this cannot be a member of the Knesset. Therefore, Ahmad go and raise the flag in Gaza and give up your citizenship to which you belong here, and I am certain that you will enjoy yourself there”

Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu at the Israeli cabinet meeting, Yedioth Ahronoth via Israel News Today on August 13, 2018:

“We saw PLO flags being waved in the heart of Tel Aviv. We heard the calls: ‘in blood and fire we will redeem Palestine.’ Many of the demonstrators want to repeal the Law of Return, they want to cancel the national anthem, they want to fold up our flag and they want to cancel Israel as the nation state of the Jewish people and to turn it, as their spokespersons say, into an Israeli-Palestinian state while others say, a state of all its citizens. It’s precisely for this reason that we passed the nation-state law. We passed the law and we will keep this law.”

Against Jeremy Corbyn, The leader of UK's Labour Party: MK (Yesh Atid) Yair Lapid (Twitter, August 11, 2018)

"If you believe Jeremy Corbyn when he says he thought he was at a Palestinian event for peace (and I don’t believe him for a second) then you also have to accept the fact that the Palestinians use ‘useful idiots’ from the radical left to advance their goal of terror and murder.”

Against the European Union States: MK (Jewish Home) Moti Yogev (‏Twitter, August 7, 2018)

“The Europeans are again working barefacedly behind the back of the State of Israel, against the Israeli interest, in order to establish a Palestinian state. But no worries, we will take advantage of this plan to promote the master plan of Judea and Samaria [Judea and Samaria], which would be accommodate Arabs and Jews under Israeli rule.”