Published 3 May 2024 at 13.58
Foreign. No “half-measures” will do – Israel's Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich calls for a “total annihilation” of Gaza, reports Haaretz. This by referring to a genocidal passage in the Torah.
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The minister made the revelation earlier this week during a speech to celebrate the end of the Jewish Passover.
Bezalel Smotrich called for the annihilation of Israel's enemies, writes Haaretz.
– Half measures will not do. Rafah, Deir al-Balah, Nuseirat – total annihilation. “Thou shalt blot out the memory of Amalek so thoroughly that there is no more under heaven,” he said.
The biblical quote refers to the Amalekites, one of the rival nations that the Jewish god Yahweh ordered them to exterminate—including women and infants. Israeli politicians have previously equated the Palestinians with the Amalekites.
Smotrich also referred to ongoing negotiations with Hamas on a deal to release the hostages, lamenting that Israel is “negotiating with someone who long ago should have ceased to exist at all.” .
The finance minister has previously given his support to the proposal to ethnically cleanse the Gaza Strip and send the surviving inhabitants to the West.