Israeli Official Incitement : May 2019

Israeli Official Incitement: May 2019

This report highlights recent inciting statements made by senior Israeli officials; including members of Israeli political parties, newly elected members of the Israeli Parliament (Knesset)1, as well as leaders of extremist and illegal settlers’ organizations. It includes examples of official Israeli incitement against the Palestinian prisoners, martyrs, and their families, the people of Gaza, the indigenous Palestinian citizens of Israel, the BDS Movement, as well as against the President of the State of Palestine and the Palestinian leadership.

I. Palestinian Prisoners and Martyrs and their Families

Itamar Ben Gvir, a Leader of 'Oztma Yehudit' party (part of the United Right Party),  (Twitter, 20 May)

“This should be the last meal before the electric chair, otherwise there is no interpretation for the ignorance of the prisons’ authority.”

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu (Minister of Defense, Minister of Health, Chairman of Likud) on  the Israeli Supreme Court overturning his decision to bar entry of Palestinian martyrs’ families to participate in a joint Israeli-Palestinian Memorial Day Ceremony (Twitter, 6 May)

“The decision of the Supreme Court is wrong and disappointing. There is no room to hold a memorial ceremony which compares between the blood of our sons and the blood of terrorists. Therefore I refused to allow the entry of the participants, and I believe that it is not for the Supreme Court to intervene in this decision.”

Mordhay (Moti) Yogev, MK (United Right), (Twitter, 6 May), also added on this ruling :

“The need for a change in the judicial system is crucial. The distorted decision to allow entry of one hundred Palestinians on the Memorial Day is not surprising after the Supreme Court gave the supporters of the destruction of Israel a free entry into the Knesset…”

II. The Ongoing Israeli Assault on Gaza

Yuli-Yoel Edelstein, The Speaker of the Knesset/ MK (Likud),  (Facebook, 16 May) 

“The disengagement plan was from Gaza strip and northern Samaria. The evacuation from the Gaza strip is what we remember because the terrorists keep reminding us of its results….we in the 21^st Knesset will annul or amend the law on disengagement in regards to northern Samaria.”

Rafael Peretz, MK (United Right), (Twitter, 6 May)

"This round in Gaza must end in a way that would make Hamas not think of firing one single rocket towards Gaza periphery. Hamas is a vicious, cynical terrorist organization that is making use of its citizens despicably to kill Israeli citizens. We have ended the current round with the targeted assassination, this policy must continue. Hamas leaders must know that they will pay their lives for their actions.”

Moshe Ya’alon, MK (Blue and White), (Twitter, 5 May)

 “The return to the assassination policy is welcomed and important to restore deterrence. Why didn't it happen last year? Because security considerations have been confined for the sake of Netanyahu’s political survival…if the current round ends without making Hamas pay a high price, then we will have to face another round in the near future …”

Uri Yehuda Ariel, Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development, (Twitter, 5 May)  

“….I call upon the prime Minister to escalate the responses and the assassination policy against the terrorists so that peace and security will return to the residents as quickly as possible…”

Bezalel Smotrich, MK (United Right), (Twitter, 5 May)

“At the tactical level, the campaign in Gaza had to end by killing seven hundred terrorists (one for each missile) and causing massive physical damage to Hamas, so that it would take them years to recover and re-think before they attack again….”

Mordhay (Moti) Yogev, MK (United Right), Twitter, 4 May)

“…given Hamas and Islamic Jihad’s massive firing, the state has to protect its citizens by severely targeting the heads of Hamas and the Islamic Jihad as well as the terror infrastructure known to Israel. Neither deterrence nor calm will be achieved for a longer term without targeting the heads of terror. Those who continue to put their trust in the Palestinian Authority which is teaching its children to destroy Israel… are pursuing an irresponsible and irrelative path of Oslo bloody accords. A long-term strategic – political solution lies in rectifying the mistake of disengagement, to reconquer Gaza and return settlement…”

Itamar Ben Gvir, a Leader of 'Oztma Yehudit' party (part of the United Right Party), (Twitter, 4 May)

“ ….the time has come to change the equation: we must erase any place from where missiles are fired; without differentiating between hospitals, population centers and kindergartens or any other clear terror sites. These are the instructions of the International law, there is no reason not to have 200 terrorists dead this evening in Gaza.” 

Ofir Sofer, MK (United Right), (Twitter, 4 May)

“Only a ground invasion and a long-term presence in the Gaza Strip will solve the problem.”   

Yoaz Hendel, MK (Blue and White), (Twitter, 4 May)

“….restoring deterrence means a severe military blow. An operation. Not to accept that the inhabitants of the south will live in shelters. After that, let us have a clear policy: carrots so that [Palestinians] will have something to lose and sticks.”

 

 III.  BDS (Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions) Movement 

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu (Minister of Defense, Minister of Health, Chairman of Likud), (Twitter, 17 May) 

“I welcome the important decision of the German Bundestag [German Federal Parliament] which defines the boycott movement against Israel (BDS) as anti-Semitic, and announced that it is forbidden to finance it. I appreciate, in particular, the statement of the Bundestag that Germany should stop financing any organization that acts against Israel’s existence. Hope this decision will lead to real steps and urge other countries to adopt similar legislations.”

Yair Lapid, MK (Blue and White),  (Twitter, 17 May)

“The decision of the Bundestag which defines the BDS as anti-Semitic and calls on the Government of Germany not to support any organization that supports BDS is an important and correct step. This movement is the modern incarnation of anti-Semitic movements from the past. It is time to pressure all European countries to follow Germany’s suit.”

IV. The Indigenous Palestinian Citizens of Israel

'Bzelmo', an Israeli extremist organization, on the release of former MK Basel Ghattas from the Israeli jail (Facebook, 27 May)

“It is unfortunate that the judicial authority speed up the release of a terrorist who was convicted of aiding terror and violence.”

Gilad Erdan, Minister of Public Security, Minister of Strategic Affairs, Minister of Information and MK (Likud), against MK Ayman Odeh (Twitter, 26 May)

“ The day when the media will understand that and not give legitimacy to the supporters of terror from the Israeli Arabs, then maybe a leadership will be created from within their community that would truly work for co-existence and equality that Arab citizens of Israel deserve.”  

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu (Minister of Defense, Minister of Health, Chairman of Likud), (Twitter, 25 May)

“…the supporter of terror Ayman Odeh is speaking with the blessing of Gantz and Lapid…”

 V. President Mahmoud Abbas and the Palestinian Leadership

Mordhay (Moti) Yogev, MK (United Right), (Twitter, 21 May)

“The entry of fortified vehicles to the Palestinian authority is a shock, if not a life- threatening crime. An authority which raises its sons and daughters on murdering Jews should not be provided with war tools. Although it is known to the security apparatuses that there were murderous terrorists among the Palestinian police.”

VI. Additional Examples

Gilad Erdan, Minister of Public Security, Minister of Strategic Affairs, Minister of Information and MK (Likud), on Iceland’s rock band raising Palestine Flag during Eurovision results (Twitter, 17 May)

“Another tweet which reveals the truth about the Palestinians and the anti-Semitic boycott movement. One day, Europeans will realize that the Palestinians neither want a State nor co-existence, but to destroy the state of the Jewish people. Anything less than that will not satisfy them. I hope that those who rose the Palestinian flags will understand that they are exploited for free.”

Ariel Kallner, MK (Likud), (Twitter, 13 May)

“The police must allow Jews to go to the Temple Mount on Jerusalem Day even if it coincides with Ramadan. And if the famous Muslim "tolerance" has a problem with that, then they must face it. Subjection to violence and the loss of sovereignty has never been useful in the face of… aggression.”

'Regavim', an Illegal Settler Organization, (Twitter, 9 May)

“……We have been here, and in the Supreme Court since 2009, to remind you that Al-Khan Al -Ahmar is the main project of the illegal takeover and the war of legal attrition of Judea and Samaria by the Palestinian Authority and the European Union, and therefore it is the clearest test of the state of Israel's ability to rule. This is the first challenge facing the upcoming government.”

Benzion Gopstein, the Founder of the Israeli extremist organization 'Lehava',  (Twitter, 5 May)

“In the war with Arabs there is no concept of pure weapons because they don’t understand this concept. A soft gentle policy is interpreted by them as weakness and leads to immediate results; the usual response: a lust for the Jewish blood (Rabai Kahana).”

• 1. The Knesset dissolved itself after the Israeli Prime Minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, failed to form the government. The new elections are scheduled for 17 September 2019.