Anti-Palestine Quotes 2022

What follows is a collection of ten quotes (along with some context and commentary) made this year relating to the theme of anti-Palestinianism. That is to say, denying Palestinian people their rights, including that of self-determination, or calling for harm against them.

While anti-Palestinianism has existed as long as the Palestinian people, the events of last year showed, it is ever more becoming part of Israeli policy as evidenced by videos of the Israeli military assisting settlers in the West Bank attacking Palestinian civilians and destroying their property. This led to the phrase “settler violence is state violence” being used by Israeli human rights organisation B’Tselem during 2021^[1]. However, rather than focussing on Israeli settlers the quotes in this article come from Israeli politicians and the Israeli establishment, which this year took a sharp turn to the far-right following Israel’s legislative elections in November.

If you think this sounds one sided that’s because it is. This is a response to the mainstream opinion espoused by most Western media and politicians that the Israel-Palestine conflict essentially boils down to good, moderate Israel defending itself against bad, extreme Palestine.^[2] We all know what Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad have to say, courtesy of Western news outlets, but what about their Israeli counterparts?

* * * * *

1

“They were armed with cameras”^{^[3]}

Ran Kochav, Israeli military spokesperson, May 11, 2022

The words of Brigadier General Ran Kochav uttered on an Israeli radio station just hours after Shireen Abu Akleh – a Palestinian journalist for al-Jazeera – was shot dead while reporting on an Israeli military raid on Jenin’s refugee camp. Subsequent investigations (officially opposed by Israel) have found that there was no Palestinian militant activity in the vicinity and Israeli forces were most likely responsible for the killing. Although Israel refutes the findings of the investigations, Kochav’s implication that the journalists were somehow a threat remains, as does international law, which states that journalists are civilians (not combatants) and it is a violation of the law to target them.

2

“If there was a button you could press which could make all the Arabs disappear, send them on an express train to Switzerland. May they live amazing lives there, I would wish them all the best in the world. I would press that button. I would press that button. Apparently, there is no such button that will transfer the Arabs to Switzerland in an agreeable way. Therefore, we were destined to live here together on this land in some form.”^{^[4]}

Matan Kahana, Israel’s Deputy Religious Affairs Minister, June 12, 2022

Although the final sentence of this quote is enough for the apologists to claim there is nothing wrong with what Kahana said, I shudder to think what the “some form” of living together might entail for someone that indulges in such a fantasy as “all Arabs disappearing.” In terms of international law, the “transfer” of civilians by an occupying power is illegal and yes, Israel has been doing so to Palestinians since its creation.^[5]

3

“When we see the riots and clashes in East Jerusalem and then this anti-Israeli video, everything comes together. Hadash and Ta’al [Arab-Israeli political parties] are terrorists in suits that incite Israeli Arabs against the government and the state. They have no place in the Israeli Knesset.” ^{^[6]}

Ayelet Shaked, Israel’s Interior Minister, October 13, 2022

This remark was aimed at members of the joint Hadash-Ta’al party during an election campaign event in response to a video released by Hadash-Ta’al which criticised Israeli operations in the West Bank and assaults on Gaza.^[7] Specifically, the video accused Shaked of “making threats and promises” for her proposed policy of revoking the citizenship of terrorists (as deemed by Israel) and their families. The video then went on to say “the occupation is putting up a siege and is killing [people]” and Israeli forces “will fail in Shuafat and Jerusalem, just like they failed in Gaza.” while “the will of our Palestinian people will be victorious through freedom.” Hardly terrorism or incitement. If you want to see incitement have a look at Israel’s actions around al-Aqsa mosque every Ramadan, its regular demolitions of Gaza and associated civilian cost, the arbiturary detention of Palestinians (including children) and its retention of Palestinian corpses for days, weeks, months or years on end.

Apart from a complete blindness to Israeli complicity in provoking “clashes” and “riots”, Shaked’s racist trope goes to show that the ‘Arab’ situation in Israel is not as rosy as Israeli apologists would have us believe.

4

“If they [Palestinians] throw stones, shoot them” ^{^[8]}

Itamar Ben-Gvir, Member of Israel’s Parliament, October 13, 2022

This was said by Itamar Ben-Gvir, a far-right Israeli MP, while brandishing a gun, to other armed settlers in the Palestinian Jerusalem neighbourhood of Sheikh Jarrah. Since last year, Israeli forces and settlers have been harassing, assaulting and forcibly removing Palestinians from their homes in Sheikh Jarrah, contra to international law and any agreements between Israeli and Palestinian authorities.

5

“They won’t have a country nor Israeli citizenship… I’m against autonomy. I’ll dismantle the Palestinian authority… they won’t vote in Israeli elections.” ^{^[9]}

Itamar Ben-Gvir, Member of Israel’s Parliament, October 19, 2022

Ben-Gvir again. This time discussing the future of Palestinians during an online interview with Israeli journalist, Suleiman Maswadeh. This came in the run up to Israel’s elections and to be clear, Ben-Gvir is proposing a policy of apartheid here. Ben-Gvir’s Otzma Yehudit party entered the 2022 elections under a joint list called The Religious Zionist Party. The party came third with 10.83% of the vote and is now part of a coalition government that has seen Ben-Gvir become Israel’s national security minister who via a recently passed law will have “unprecedented control” over Israel’s police.^[10] Sadly, we can expect to hear his name a lot in the coming year (well, not if you rely on Western news sources).

6

“On the one hand we understand that childbirth overwhelms us, the Arab womb, on the other hand we encourage it with the child allowances. A regressive child benefit should be considered. A fourth child will not be accepted, a fifth may be a fine.” ^{^[11]}

Gideon Sahar, Head of Cardiothoracic Surgery at Soroka Hospital, October 24, 2022

This comment was made by one of Israel’s top surgeons during a parlour meeting hosted by Interior Minister Ayelet Shaked (see quote 3). Sahar’s comments reflect a long-held concern by some Jewish-Israelis (including many top politicians) that the Arab population of the country will increase enough to deprive the State of Israel of its Jewish majority – a principle at the very core of the Israeli state.

To be clear, Sahar, sees Arab births as a threat, is against Israeli state financial assistance to non-Jewish citizens of Israel and would prefer a reverse policy of stipends that would discourage non-Jewish births in Israel.

Although unopposed during the informal gathering in which he made his comments, Sahar was soon condemned by Israel’s Health Minister and later apologised. However, he hasn’t actually retracted his remarks and remains in his job despite calls from The Association of Arab Physicians for his dismissal.

7

“I’m against the two state solution” ^{^[12]}

Benny Gantz, Israel’s Minister of Defence, October 30, 2022

Without going into the deficiencies of the two-state solution itself, or the fact that it is dead in the water due to Israel’s continued and ever expanding occupation of the West Bank, it is rhetorically the framework that Israel is committed to and from which most of its international goodwill depends on. Maybe the members of the international community should listen to what one of Israel’s top ministers actually thinks before releasing another toothless statement highlighting the importance of the two-state solution as the best way forward. Needless to say, Gantz isn’t alone in his thinking.

8

“Happy Rabin Murder Day” ^{^[13]}

Anonymous, November 4, 2022

On November 4, 1995, Israel’s Prime Minister, Yitzhak Rabin was assassinated by a far-right Jewish extremist after signing the Oslo Accords with the Palestinian Authority. The Oslo Accords granted some control of Israeli-occupied Palestinian land to the Palestinian Authority (in reality not much changed and the Accords weren’t at all popular among Palestinians). According to the assassin, Yigal Amir, he acted because Rabin wanted “to give our country to the Arabs.”^[14] While the assassination has always been a source of shame for Israel’s right-wing of politics, this year a sign celebrating the murder was hung on a bridge in the city of Netanya as Israel commemorated the Yitzhak Rabin Memorial Day.

9

“The Palestinians are exploiting the ICJ as a weapon of mass destruction in their jihad war of Israel demonisation” ^{^[15]}

Gilad Erdan, Israel’s ambassador to the UN, November 11, 2022

The ridiculous and quite frankly racist hyperbole aside, Palestinians have the right to appeal to international legal instruments and Israel has a case to answer. It’s as simple as that really. While Israel and its apologists will do their best to undermine any international body that dares to even criticise it, we must remember the good work they do for the abused and oppressed of the world.

10

“These are the basic lines of the national government headed by me: The Jewish people have an exclusive and unquestionable right to all areas of the Land of Israel. The government will promote and develop settlement in all parts of the Land of Israel – in the Galilee, the Negev, the [Syrian] Golan, Judea and Samaria [The West Bank].” ^{^[16]}

Benjamin Netanyahu, Israeli Prime Minister, December 28, 2022

It doesn’t get more extreme, immoral or illegal than this, does it? Maybe we can ask Hamas and Islamic Jihad.^[17] Anyway, it’s time for the international community to act and restrain this war criminal. We need more than empty statements that merely ‘urge’ Israel to stop committing war crimes and taking Palestinian land. The world needs to sanction Israel as others have been for doing the same.

* * * * *

So, this year has seen the continuing slide to the far-right of Israeli society and politics culminating in the re-election of former Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and the subsequent formation of a far-right coalition government, which looks set to be Israel’s most extreme yet. While some commentators have predicted that this may lead to some kind of existential crisis within Israel, the only sure thing is that the Palestinian people will bear the bloody brunt of whatever happens.

As a final thought, I will leave you with one more quote from Ontario based Rabbi David Mivasair made on December 27, 2022:

“Our fear of criticising Israel makes us complicit in a devastating year of Palestinian suffering”^[18]

I would personally amend that to:

“Our fear of criticising Israel coupled with the support afforded to Israel by the international community makes us, the world, complicit in the devastating decades of Palestinian suffering.”

Stand up.

Footnotes:

^[1] https://www.btselem.org/topic/settler_violence

^[2] This year social media sites Instagram and Facebook confirmed their own anti-Palestinian bias following their own internal investigations:

https://theintercept.com/2022/09/21/facebook-censorship-palestine-israel-algorithm/

^[3] https://edition.cnn.com/2022/05/24/middleeast/shireen-abu-akleh-jenin-killing-investigation-cmd-intl/index.html

^[4] https://twitter.com/search?q=kahana%20arabs%20disappear&src=typed_query&f=top

^[5] https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2020/9/27/israels-silent-transfer-of-palestinians-out-of-palestine

^[6] https://twitter.com/Ayelet__Shaked/status/1580484567957241856

^[7] https://www.timesofisrael.com/shaked-calls-arab-lawmakers-terrorists-in-suits-with-no-place-in-knesset/

^[8] https://twitter.com/edokonrad/status/1580655802666586113

^[9] https://twitter.com/yachaduk/status/1582660506606714880

^[10] https://www.jpost.com/breaking-news/article-725899

^[11] https://twitter.com/bokeralmog/status/1584407094723477504

^[12] https://twitter.com/YairWallach/status/1586830712958754816

^[13] https://m.jpost.com/israel-news/article-721581

^[14] https://www.history.com/this-day-in-history/yitzhak-rabin-assassinated