Latest news with #Haliva
L'Orient-Le Jour
8 hours ago
- Politics
- L'Orient-Le Jour
'They need a Nakba every once in a while,' says former Israeli military intelligence chief
Former Israeli military intelligence chief Aharon Haliva, who was in office during the Oct. 7, 2023, Hamas attack and has been blamed for failing to prevent it, said the human toll in the Gaza Strip is 'necessary,' adding that '[Palestinians] need a Nakba every once in a while,' according to a series of undated recordings aired Friday night by Israeli Channel 12, Israeli media reported. The Nakba, Arabic for 'catastrophe,' refers to 1948, when about 760,000 Palestinian Arabs were violently expelled and displaced from their homes during Israel's occupation of Palestine. In the Columbia Law Review, Palestinian legal scholar Rabea Eghbariah argued for recognition of the Nakba as a concept in international law and genocide studies to better understand what he described as the 'domination regime in Palestine.' 'The fact that there are already 50,000 dead in Gaza is necessary and required for future generations,' Haliva said, though the Health Ministry in Gaza puts the death toll at more than 61,000. 'For everything that happened on Oct. 7, for every person killed on Oct. 7, 50 Palestinians must die,' he said. 'I am not saying this out of revenge, but as a message to future generations,' he added. 'They need a Nakba from time to time in order to feel the consequences. There is no alternative in this deranged neighborhood.' A May poll by Penn State University found that 82 percent of Israeli Jews supported the expulsion of Palestinians from Gaza. 'Hamas is good for Israel' Haliva also accused the Israeli government of deliberately allowing Hamas to rise to 'fight freely.' He said a plan drafted after the 2014 Gaza war to dismantle Hamas 'was never considered for implementation.' Instead, he argued, some leaders embraced the idea that 'Hamas is good for Israel — that's the argument of [Finance Minister Bezalel] Smotrich,' according to remarks cited by the Times of Israel. Haliva claimed the far-right minister seeks to dismantle the Palestinian Authority and allow Hamas to take over the West Bank. 'Why? Because if the whole Palestinian arena is destabilized and goes insane, it is impossible to negotiate with, and there will be no agreement,' he said. 'Who decided to differentiate Gaza from the West Bank? The prime minister [Benjamin Netanyahu]!' Haliva, who resigned in April 2024, six months after Oct. 7, accused Netanyahu of enabling Hamas's rule in Gaza, which took power in the 2006 legislative elections following Israel's 2005 withdrawal. 'He wants Hamas, which is far worse than the PA. Why does he want Hamas? Because the PA has international status,' Haliva said. 'Hamas is an organization that can be fought freely. It has no international justification, no legitimacy. You can fight it with the sword.'
Roya News
10 hours ago
- Politics
- Roya News
"Palestinians need a Nakba every now and then," says ex-'Israeli' intelligence chief
Aharon Haliva, the former head of 'Israel's' military intelligence who stepped down after the events of October 7, 2023, has been heard defending mass Palestinian deaths in Gaza as both 'necessary' and 'required for future generations.' In audio recordings aired Friday on Ulpan Shishi, a flagship news program on 'Israel's' Channel 12, Haliva said, 'The fact that there are already 50,000 dead in Gaza is necessary and required for future generations.' He also argued that for each 'Israeli' killed on October 7, 50 Palestinians must die in response. 'There's no choice, they need a Nakba every now and then to feel the consequences,' Haliva added, referencing the mass displacement and killings of Palestinians during the creation of 'Israel' in 1948. He claimed his remarks were not driven by revenge but rather as 'a message for future generations,' describing Gaza as a 'disturbed neighbourhood.' - Military failures and the Hannibal directive - Haliva resigned from his post in 2024 after admitting responsibility for failing to anticipate Hamas' operation in southern 'Israel', which killed at least 1,195 people, according to the 'Israeli' army. Reports in Haaretz revealed that during the chaos of that day, 'Israel' invoked the controversial 'Hannibal directive,' a military procedure that authorizes lethal force to prevent the capture of 'Israeli' soldiers, even at the risk of killing them. - "Hamas is good for Israel" - The recordings also touched on 'Israeli' strategy toward the Palestinians. Haliva suggested that 'Israel' had deliberately fostered instability in the West Bank to ensure Hamas, rather than the Palestinian Authority (PA), would gain influence, thereby undermining prospects for a two-state solution. He alleged that after 'Israel's' 2014 war on Gaza, a blueprint to dismantle Hamas was drawn up but never carried out. 'Hamas is good for Israel, that's [Finance Minister Bezalel] Smotrich's argument,' Haliva said, claiming that Smotrich advocates weakening the PA to let Hamas take over in the West Bank, as it did in Gaza. 'Why? Because if the entire Palestinian arena is destabilised and crazy, it is impossible to negotiate with,' he continued. 'Then there will be no agreement [on a Palestinian state].' Haliva stressed that the PA has international legitimacy that restricts 'Israel's' ability to act freely, whereas Hamas does not. 'Hamas is an organisation that you can fight freely, it has no international justification, it has no legitimacy, you can fight it with a sword,' he said.
Middle East Eye
a day ago
- Politics
- Middle East Eye
'They need a Nakba': Former Israeli intelligence chief calls Gaza death toll 'necessary'
The former head of Israel's military intelligence, who resigned last year for failing to prevent the 7 October attacks, has said Palestinians need to face a Nakba "every now and then" and that the spiralling death toll in Gaza is "necessary" and will serve as "a message for future generations." According to audio recordings broadcast on Ulpan Shishi, a TV programme which airs on Israel's Channel 12 on Friday, Retired General Aharon Haliva said that "50 Palestinians should die" for every victim of the 7 October attack on southern Israel. "There's no choice, they need a Nakba every now and then to feel the consequences," Haliva said, referring to the ethnic cleansing of Palestine by Zionist militias to make way for the creation of Israel in 1948. "I'm not saying this out of revenge, but as a message for future generations," he added. It's unclear how many Israelis were killed by Hamas-led fighter on 7 October but according to the Israeli military at least 1,195 people died on that day. New MEE newsletter: Jerusalem Dispatch Sign up to get the latest insights and analysis on Israel-Palestine, alongside Turkey Unpacked and other MEE newsletters According to Haaretz, Israel's newspaper of record, the Israeli military widely employed the Hannibal directive on 7 October which mandates that Israeli forces use any means necessary to prevent the capture of Israeli soldiers, even if it involves killing them. In the wide-raging recording, Haliva also said that Israel was intent on creating a politically hostile environment in the occupied West Bank so that groups like Hamas could assume power and the international community would refuse to engage with them, thereby killing off the idea of a two-state solution. Haliva said that a plan was devised after the 2014 Gaza war to dismantle Hamas, but Israeli officials had no intention of "implementing it." "Listen, you don't understand that there are much deeper things here. The Israeli-Palestinian conflict is at the heart of the matter, because Hamas is good for Israel - that's [Finance Minster Bezalel] Smotrich's argument," Haliva said, saying that the minister wants to dismantle the Palestinian Authority and let Hamas take control in the West Bank, as it did in Gaza. "Why? Because if the entire Palestinian arena is destabilised and crazy, it is impossible to negotiate with," he said. "Then there will be no agreement [on a Palestinian state]." "Who made the decision to differentiate between Gaza and the West Bank? The prime minister!" Haliva said, placing blame on the rise of Hamas in Gaza on Netanyahu. "Why does he want Hamas, a terrorist organisation, to take over from the PA?" Haliva asked. "He wants Hamas, which is much worse than the PA. Why does he want Hamas? Because the PA has international status." "Hamas is an organisation that you can fight freely, it has no international justification, it has no legitimacy, you can fight it with a sword," he said. Hamas and Israel reached a brief three-stage ceasefire in January, but the deal collapsed in March after Israel took back several of its captives and resumed bombing Gaza, walking away from the deal before talks with Hamas on a permanent end to the war could start. Since then, the Trump administration has given Israel full backing to wage war on the enclave. Israel has relentlessly bombed the besieged Gaza Strip since the 7 October 2023 attacks on southern Israel, displacing the entire 2.3 million population multiple times, and has killed more than 60,000 Palestinians, mostly women and children.
Days of Palestine
2 days ago
- Politics
- Days of Palestine
Israeli Intelligence Chief Admits to 'Necessary' Killing of 50k Palestinians
DaysofPal- Aharon Haliva, the former head of the Israeli army's Intelligence Directorate during the October 7 attacks, has admitted in closed recordings that Israeli forces deliberately sought the killing of 50,000 Palestinians as a message of deterrence to future generations. The shocking revelations, reported by Israeli Channel 12, highlight the scale of intentional civilian targeting during the ongoing war in Gaza. Haliva, who resigned months after the surprise Hamas-led assault, acknowledged his failure in carrying out his responsibilities that day. He justified the staggering Palestinian death toll, stating, 'The fact that there are 50,000 dead in Gaza was necessary and required for future generations. To say to them: you humiliated us and killed us, but this is the price. I said after October 7 that it was necessary to kill 50 Palestinians for every Israeli killed, children, women, it doesn't matter. This had to be done as a message for the future.' The former intelligence chief described the collapse of Israeli military command on the morning of the attack, admitting that the Gaza Division had been completely subdued, leaving the army powerless. He also criticized the Israeli military establishment for underestimating Hamas's capabilities, dismissing warnings of an above-ground attack. 'We mocked the idea. We thought: why would they build tunnels if they were planning to come above ground? We underestimated them, and paid the price,' he said. Haliva went on to slam what he called Israeli 'strategic arrogance,' claiming the state had long been blinded by its belief in its military and intelligence superiority. 'We believed we were invincible, with Shin Bet, Mossad, Aman, surveillance, and one of the strongest armies in the world. We thought our enemy was deterred and could be pacified with Qatari money,' he admitted. The revelations also shed light on internal Israeli political divisions. Haliva described Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu as 'very cowardly and a failure,' and former Chief of Staff Herzi Halevi as suffering from 'delusions of grandeur.' He called for a formal inquiry into the October 7 failures and accused the Shin Bet of a complete intelligence collapse, saying they failed to secure even the smallest warning despite vast resources. He further criticized far-right ministers Itamar Ben-Gvir and Bezalel Smotrich, saying they 'know nothing about security, don't read intelligence reports, and were not even aware Hamas had elite forces. Now they claim there is no famine in Gaza. What intelligence are these people even reading?' Haliva's confessions provide one of the clearest indications yet that Israeli military campaign in Gaza, which has killed tens of thousands of Palestinians, was not merely a response to Hamas's October 7 attack but also a deliberate strategy of mass killing designed to impose collective punishment and instill generational trauma. Shortlink for this post:
