‘Gaza must be eliminated': Israel's airwaves are filled with pro-genocide propaganda
'Strikes on Iran ease pressure on Israel to end starvation in Gaza.' That, in case you missed it, is a recent headline from the Guardian from Saturday. It's the sort of statement that might have once shocked people but is now just another news bulletin.
Following Israel's 'pre-emptive strike' on Iran earlier this month, which happened just as more people started speaking up about the genocide, attention has been averted from Gaza. But Israel's assault on Gaza (and the West Bank), is continuing apace.
With the pressure off, the fear is that some of the most extreme voices in Israel will get exactly what they want in Gaza. Which, as retired Maj Gen Giora Eiland wrote in an Israeli paper on 12 October 2023, is to turn into 'a place where no human being can exist'.
To remind you of what some of these voices have planned for Gaza, below is a collection of some of the more outrageous statements by Israeli lawmakers or influencers since 7 October 2023.
I've limited the collection to 20, but there are databases online with hundreds of statements which show a blurring of Hamas and the population of Gaza (including children) and a desire to inflict collective punishment. The end goal of all this is not the removal of Hamas from Gaza, but the removal of all Palestinians from Gaza and the West Bank.
'All of Gaza's infrastructures must be destroyed to its foundation and their electricity cut off immediately. The war is not against Hamas but against the state of Gaza,' said May Golan, minister for social equality and the advancement of the status of women of Israel on 7 October 2023.
'Flatten everything [in Gaza] just like it is today in Auschwitz,' David Azoulay, council leader for the northern Israeli town of Metula, said in an interview with an Israeli radio station, December 2023.
'[I]t'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 …' Isaac Herzog, Israel's president, said at a press conference on 13 October (in English).
'Now we all have one common goal – erasing the Gaza Strip from the face of the Earth' Nissim Vaturi, deputy speaker of the Israeli parliament, wrote on X 7 October 2023. Vaturi also wrote: 'The war will never end if we don't expel everyone.' (2 November 2023) and 'To wipe out Gaza. Nothing else will satisfy us … Don't leave a single child there, expel all the remaining ones in the end, so they have no chance of recovery.' (9 October 2023)
'The children and women must be separated and the adults in Gaza must be eliminated. We are being too considerate,' Vaturi said during an interview with Kol BaRama radio in February 2025, when he also called Palestinians 'subhumans' and said the West Bank would be turned into Gaza next.
'The Gaza Strip should be flattened, and for all of them there is but one sentence, and that is death,' Yitzhak Kroizer, a member of national security minister Itamar Ben Gvir's far-right Otzma Yehudit party, said in a radio interview. This did not get much international coverage but was cited in the letter sent to the attorney general at the end of 2023 accusing the country's judicial authorities of ignoring incitement to genocide.
'Gaza won't return to what it was before. We will eliminate everything,' Israeli defence minister Yoav Gallant, said October 2023. (Gallant was in this position at the time of the statement but is no longer in government)
'I'm not sure you're speaking for us when you say we want to treat every child and every woman. I hope you don't stand behind that statement either. When fighting a group like this, the distinctions that exist in a normal world don't exist,' said Likud parliament member Amit Halevi in the Knessest, in response to a statement from an Israeli doctor saying suffering children should get painkillers, May 2025.
'The children in Gaza have brought this upon themselves,' said Meirav Ben-Ari from Yair Lapid's opposition party Yesh Atid in response to a Palestinian lawmaker bemoaning the loss of civilian life on 16 October 2023.
'There should be 2 goals for this victory: 1. There is no more Muslim land in the Land of Israel ... After we make it the land of IL, Gaza should be left as a monument, like Sodom …' said Likud member of the Knesset Amit Halevi on 16 October 2023.
'They [the children] are our enemies,' said Simcha Rothman, a member of the Knesset for the National Religious party, part of prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu's coalition. Rothman was responding to a question from a Channel 4 (UK) interviewer asking 'the children are your enemies?'
The following statements were all made on Channel 14: a far-right TV station that used to be a niche outlet but has morphed into one of the most watched news sources in Israel. Three civil rights organization have asked for an investigation into Channel 14 for its normalization of genocidal statements.
'This is clearly not a matter of a few isolated voices saying outrageous things in the heat of the moment,' Ran Cohen, the director of the Israeli Democratic bloc said in a statement to the Guardian. 'The pattern of incitement emerging from Channel 14 is systematic, sustained, and orchestrated – not incidental. We have documented hundreds of statements, many delivered by regular hosts and guests, broadcast daily into Israeli homes and directly watched by soldiers. The line between media and war propaganda has been erased.'
'If the goal of this operation is not destruction, occupation, expulsion, and settlement, then we have accomplished nothing,' said former member of the Israeli Knesset, Moshe Feiglin, on 12 October 2023.
'Erase Gaza completely, don't leave a single person there' said singer Eyal Golan, on 15 October 2023. Since making a number of statements like this, Golan has gone on to perform concerts in Europe.
'We are coming. We are coming. We are coming to Gaza. We are coming to Lebanon. We will come to Iran. We will come to every place [...] We will annihilate the enemy. We will return the Middle East to a situation where Arabs are terrified of Jews [...] we will come to annihilate you [emphasizes]. To a-n-n-i-h-i-l-a- t-e. Annihilate. Pass this on, share this video so all your friends can see what we are about to do to you,' said the anchor of Channel 14's morning show, Shai Golden, 17 October 2023.
'The enemy is not Hamas, but Gaza. The enemy is not Fatah, but the Arabs of the West Bank. And they are not willing to accept this because the approach to dealing with this enemy, called 'Gaza,' needs to be completely different [...] Similar to Chechnya, where the Russians flattened it to the extent that the Chechens realized: it's not worth thinking with them [...] There are no innocents. When you say 'population', there is no population. There are two and a half million terrorists [...] When there are no innocents in Gaza, there's no point in 'roof knocking'. Because everyone is a terrorist,' said Eliahu Yusian, who presents himself as an expert and commentator on Arab affairs. He is a frequent guest on Channel 14, was a guest on the show The Patriots and said all the above without interruption on 29 October 2023.
'I keep looking beyond the military objectives, which is nice, but in the end, there's something beyond the military objectives, and that's the strategy. It's about breaking the spirit of the Gazan public, and things are happening there,' Shimon Riklin said on 21 February 2024.
'… every day we're killing 100 terrorists? There are two and a half million terrorists there!' panelist Eliahu Yusian said on 24 February 2024.
'Regarding what Boaz mentioned, in the first day or two, we should have killed 100,000 Gazans [...] Only a few are possibly human there. Only a few are possibly human there. Over 90% are terrorists and are involved! Not uninvolved, there's no such thing as uninvolved,' political commentator Danny Neuman said on journalist Boaz Golan's show on 6 May 2024.
'The destruction in Gaza gives me a good feeling. Gaza is in a state of annihilation. Many buildings no longer exist in the landscape. The destruction machine must keep working so it's clear they have nowhere to return to. Despair as a work plan,' Yinon Magal said on the show The Patriots reading a tweet by a reservist soldier named Dvir Luger on 3 August 2024.
'Gaza deserves death. The 2.6 million terrorists in Gaza deserve death! … Men, women, and children – in every way possible, we must simply carry out a Holocaust on them – yes, read that again – H-O-L-O-C-A-U-S-T! For me, gas chambers. Train cars. And other cruel forms of death for these Nazis. Without fear, without hesitation – simply crush, eradicate, slaughter, flatten, dismantle, smash, shatter …. Gaza deserves death. Let there be a Holocaust in Gaza,' said Elad Barashi, a TV producer affiliated with Channel 14, on 27 February 2025. in a post on X which was later deleted.
It's clear now that nothing will shame the West into stopping Israel from carrying out its 'total victory' in Gaza. But I've written this to serve as yet another reminder that we all knew what was coming. Nobody can feign ignorance. Nobody can pretend they didn't know.
Arwa Mahdwai is a Guardian US columnist
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
The Independent
8 minutes ago
- The Independent
Trump's $30B pitch to get Iran back in negotiations after ‘demolition' of nuclear sites: report
President Donald Trump's administration has discussed a plan to lure Iran back to the negotiating table after conducting strikes on its nuclear facilities last weekend, CNN reported. Two sources told CNN administration officials discussed plans for negotiations with Iran. But in exchange, the administration wants zero enrichment of its uranium. Trump's special envoy to the Middle East Steve Witkoff and partners in the Gulf on the Friday before Operation Midnight Hammer, wherein the administration conducted strikes at the nuclear facilities in Fordow, Ishfahan and Natanz. Among the potential offers, the administration has discussed investing $20-30 billion in a non-enrichment nuclear program for Iran for energy purposes, CNN reported. The United States would not pay for the program, but rather Arab nations would contribute the money. 'The US is willing to lead these talks,' one Trump administration official told CNN. 'And someone is going to need to pay for the nuclear program to be built, but we will not make that commitment.' The administration has also allowing Iran to access $6 billion sitting in foreign bank accounts that it current cannot access, as well as lifting some foreign sanctions. Two sources said that the Trump administration has also suggested replacing the Fordow facility that US forces hit on Saturday. But it's not clear if Iran couild use the site. 'There are a lot of ideas being thrown around by different people and a lot of them are trying to be creative,' one source told CNN. But another source familiar with the first five rounds of discussions between the United States and Iran said 'I think it is entirely uncertain what will happen here.' Trump said on Wednesday that the United States and Iran would sit down next week. But the spokesman for Iran's Foreign Ministry said he did not know any talks would take place. Despite this, Trump said 'I don't care if I have an agreement or not' when it comes to Iran's nuclear program. The Trump administration has hoped that the strikes that it conducted could force Iran to accept US conditions and stop taking steps toward obtaining a nuclear weapon. But the Iranian parliament voted on Wednesday to fast-track a proposal to effectively stop cooperation with International Atomic Energy Agency, the United Nations' nuclear oversight agency. The United States had initially planned to conduct a sixth round of negotiations before Israel struck Iran. Ahead of the Trump administration conducting its strikes on Saturday, it notified Iran through intermediaries that the strikes would be limited to notify the regime that strikes would be limited and that the United States would not accept any uranium enrichment. At the same time, the president has been cagey about the potential for a deal. 'I could get a statement that they're not going to go nuclear, we're probably going to ask for that,' Trump said during the NATO summit this week.
The Independent
8 minutes ago
- The Independent
UN commission says Syria must end violence against Alawites and protect places of worship
The head of a U.N. investigative commission on Friday called commitments made by the new authorities in Syria to protect the rights of minorities 'encouraging' but said attacks have continued on members of the Alawite sect in the months since a major outbreak of sectarian violence on Syria's coast. Paulo Pinheiro, the head of the U.N. Commission of Inquiry on Syria, told a meeting of the U.N. Human Rights Council in Geneva that the current Syrian government — led by Islamist former insurgents who ousted former Syrian President Bashar Assad — had given his team 'unfettered access' to the coast and to witnesses of the violence and victims' families. 'Disturbingly, reports continue to circulate of ongoing killings and arbitrary arrests of members of the Alawite community, as well as the confiscation of the property of those who fled the March violence,' he said. Pinheiro's commission also 'documented abductions by unknown individuals of at least six Alawite women this spring in several Syrian governorates,' two of whom remain missing, and has received 'credible reports of more abductions,' he said. Pinheiro also called on authorities to put in place more protections for places of worship after Sunday's suicide bombing attack on a church outside of Damascus. The attack, which killed at least 25 people and wounded dozens more, was the first of its kind to take place in the Syrian capital in years. The Syrian government has said that the perpetrators belonged to a cell of the Islamic State group and that they thwarted a subsequent attempt to target a Shiite shrine in the Sayyida Zeinab suburb in Damascus. 'Attacks on places of worship are outrageous and unacceptable,' Pinheiro said. 'The authorities must ensure the protection of places of worship and threatened communities and ensure that perpetrators and enablers are held accountable.' Assad was deposed in a lightning rebel offensive in December, bringing an end to a nearly 14-year civil war. In March, hundreds of civilians, most of them from the Alawite minority to which Assad belongs, were killed in revenge attacks after clashes broke out between pro-Assad armed groups and the new government security forces on the Syrian coast. Pinheiro said his commission had documented scattered 'revenge attacks' that happened before that, including killings in several villages in Hama and Homs provinces in late January in which men who had handed over their weapons under a 'settlement' process set up for former soldiers and members of security forces under Assad, believing that they would be granted an amnesty in exchange for disarmament, were then 'ill-treated and executed.' He praised the interim government's formation of a body tasked with investigating the attacks on the coast and said government officials had told his team that 'dozens of alleged perpetrators' were arrested. Pinheiro said the government needs to carry out a 'reform and vetting program' as it integrates a patchwork of former rebel factions into a new army and security services and enact 'concrete policies to put an end to Syria's entrenched cycles of violence and revenge, in a context where heightened tensions and sectarian divisions have been reignited.'
Telegraph
11 minutes ago
- Telegraph
Prince of Wales hosts Palestinian aid workers
The Prince of Wales has hosted Palestinian aid workers, after revealing concern over suffering in the Middle East. The Prince met with representatives from the British Red Cross and Palestine Red Crescent Society (PRCS) on Thursday. The ongoing conflict in Gaza, which is at the forefront of both charities' operations, is likely to have been a key topic of conversation. The Prince, who is increasingly positioning himself as a global statesman, has closely followed developments in Israel and Gaza since the Hamas terror attack on Oct 7 2023. A Kensington Palace spokesman said on Friday: 'The Prince of Wales continues to follow the humanitarian situation in the Middle East closely.' More than 1,600 staff and volunteers from the PRCS have been working to provide life-saving support in Gaza, distributing emergency relief items, and providing medical support to more than 100,000 people. In March, eight PRCS medics were killed while on duty in Gaza, and one of their colleagues is still missing. The charity has warned that the humanitarian situation in Gaza is 'unbearable' and rapidly deteriorating. In February 2024, the Prince called for an end to the fighting in a strongly-worded intervention that risked sparking a diplomatic rift with Israel. The Prince's statement was released as he met British Red Cross aid workers involved in the humanitarian effort and spoke to their colleagues working on the ground in the region. He explained that the violence had left him ' deeply moved as a father '. He warned that ' too many have been killed ', urging more humanitarian aid and the release of hostages as he called for 'an end to the fighting as soon as possible'. 'Brighter future' Invoking Sir Winston Churchill, he said: 'Even in the darkest hour, we must not succumb to the counsel of despair. I continue to cling to the hope that a brighter future can be found, and I refuse to give up on that.' His intervention was backed by No 10, which said the nation should speak with 'one voice'. The Prince previously joined a synagogue discussion with young campaigners against hatred, in the wake of a sharp rise in anti-Semitism caused by the ongoing violence. In October 2023, the Prince and Princess of Wales condemned Hamas's 'appalling terrorist attack upon Israel', warning that all Israelis and Palestinians would be 'stalked by grief, fear and anger' as 'Israel exercises its right of self defence'. The King condemned the 'barbaric acts of terrorism', and was said to be 'extremely concerned' about the conflict, asking to be kept abreast of developments. Later that month, the monarch, who is president of the British Red Cross, hosted representatives from five charities operating in the Middle East, including Gaza, to 'discuss the acute humanitarian situation'. He also held talks with Sir Ephraim Mirvis, the UK's chief rabbi, to discuss the impact on the Jewish population in the UK. The British Red Cross said at the time that the King had made a 'generous donation' to its Israel and Occupied Palestinian Territory fundraising appeal. In 2018, The Prince of Wales made a four-day visit to Israel and Palestine, expressing his own hopes for 'lasting peace' in the region. It was the first official trip by a member of the monarchy to Israel and the Occupied West Bank and, during his visit, he sat down for separate talks with Benjamin Netanyahu, the Israeli prime minister, and Mahmoud Abbas, the Palestinian Authority president.
