Expel Palestinians, populate Gaza with Jews, says Knesset deputy speaker

Ali Abunimah 19 July 2014

A relative carries the body of four-year-old Qassim Elwan during his funeral in Gaza City on 19 July. Qassim was killed along with his brother by Israeli shelling the previous day. Ezz al-Zanoun APA images

Israel must attack Gaza even more mercilessly, expel the population and resettle the territory with Jews, the deputy speaker of Israel’s parliament, the Knesset, has said.

Moshe Feiglin, a member of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s ruling Likud Party, makes the call in an article for the Israeli news website Arutz Sheva.

Feiglin demands that Israel launch attacks “throughout Gaza with the IDF’s [Israeli army’s] maximum force (and not a tiny fraction of it) with all the conventional means at its disposal.”

Force Gaza population out

“After the IDF completes the ‘softening’ of the targets with its firepower, the IDF will conquer the entire Gaza, using all the means necessary to minimize any harm to our soldiers, with no other considerations,” Feiglin writes in one of several calls for outright war crimes.

Following the reconquest, Israel’s army “will thoroughly eliminate all armed enemies from Gaza. The enemy population that is innocent of wrongdoing and separated itself from the armed terrorists will be treated in accordance with international law and will be allowed to leave,” Feiglin writes.

“Gaza is part of our land”

“Gaza is part of our Land and we will remain there forever,” Feiglin concludes. “Subsequent to the elimination of terror from Gaza, it will become part of sovereign Israel and will be populated by Jews. This will also serve to ease the housing crisis in Israel.”

Feiglin has a long history of incitement. Last week he expelled Arab members of the Knesset who dared to criticize Israel’s ongoing slaughter in Gaza and called for Israel to cut off power to dialysis patients there.

As of now, ninety percent of Gaza is without electricity, journalist Mohammed Omer reports, and most Palestinians in Gaza are getting as little as two hours of electricity per day.

Death toll climbs relentlessly

More than 100 Palestinians have been killed in the last 48 hours as Israel continues its indiscriminate attacks on Palestinians throughout the occupied Gaza Strip by land, sea and air.

By Saturday afternoon in Gaza, the thirteenth day of Israel’s current bombardment and invasion of the coastal territory, 339 people, the vast majority civilians, had been killed in total and 2,500 injured.

Tens of thousands have fled their homes, primarily in the north and east of Gaza, seeking shelter from the Israeli assault in United Nations-run schools.

Genocidal demands

Feiglin’s call for the destruction of the Palestinian community in Gaza has some resonance.

Just a day before Feiglin’s article, Rabbi Ben Packer made a similar demand, calling the current assault “an opportunity for Israel to achieve a victory – to move the border” by conquering northern Gaza.

Packer is the director of “Heritage House,” a settlement in occupied East Jerusalem that houses so-called “lone soldiers,” men recruited from overseas to join the Israeli occupation forces.

Israel’s former settlers in Gaza, evacuated in 2005, would be given the first opportunity to “settle in the regained territory,” Packer said.

Packer, a settler from the United States and volunteer in the Israeli army, previously served as the “Rabbi on Campus” at the University of North Carolina and Duke University.

Calls like Feiglin’s and Packer’s for genocidal-scale violence against Palestinians are being heard with ever more frequency from Israeli leaders.

A call for genocide of the Palestinians by Ayelet Shaked, a rising star in Israel’s Habeyit Hayehudi (Jewish Home) party, part of the government, received global notoriety after The Electronic Intifada translated and exposed it earlier this month.

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Comments

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Emmanuel Tierra replied on

Self-evident that the State of Israel has no shortage of stupidity.

What compels a person to advocate War Crimes of ethnic cleansing?

Self-evident that Sionists are not Semites; nor do they practice Judaism.

Deuteronomy 19:14 Do not move the [1949 Armistice] boundary mark; Honor thy ancestors [UNGA 273, 1949 Armistice, & Laws of Armed Conflict] agreements; do not bare false witness:

Death penalty offense keep away evil from our Semitic people.

We document their advocacy for War Crimes for future War Crimes Tribunals.

ET

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Boto replied on

it has always been the main target of Israel, to conquer the whole Palestine at all costs , continues massacre defenceless civilians in each day in the name of self-defence and Palestinians resisting to this stress 'r seen as terrorists. each day in Gaza there must b Palestinians being abused, tortured. u cant work or speak freely in yr own land ,no proper sanity ,u hv no right at all as a Palestinian in Palestine, looking at yr family being all murdered 4 no reason,who on earth 'll bear this harsh situation, is better to posses 1000 souls n die 1000 times than to b a slave to yr fellow human being , specially to the most cruel beings ever existed on this earth, what prove do we need further to support these people, with all these evil statements openly from Israel PM n his complex we still call it self-defence, how cruel we 'r , but believe it or not justice 'll always prevail n when it does the world shall b reminded that no one was born as a slave

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Tom Hall replied on

It is vital that reports such as this one be posted and circulated as widely as possible. Not only are the people of Gaza being subjected to massive war crimes now, but they face an even more terrible fate if figures such as Feiglin, Packer and Shaked have their way. The world must be told the truth, that Israel today is a hotbed of racist, fascist bloodlust. The mainstream corporate media do not report the degeneration of Israeli discourse and society, opting to present the country as a normal nation fighting to protect its people. In fact, we are confronted with a violent, aberrant colonial regime which has no aim of co-existing with the native population- a point made recently by Noam Chomsky.

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chrissky replied on

Only a Zionist can publicly call for the genocide of a particular people and not only not be condemned for it... encouraged. Oh wait. The Nazis did that too!

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William replied on

MK Feiglin is a knuckle dragging, hate mongering religious fanatic. People of his ilk are immune to reason. They should be ostracized by the entire international community. Sorry to say, shamefully ignorant American religious fundamentalists support these crackpots while claiming to be Christians.

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lirun replied on

hamas interrupted gaza's electricity supply (provided by Israel) by shooting rockets at the infrastructure on Israel's side and then by shooting at the Israelis who wanted to fix it..

at some point it was determined that it was unsafe to continue trying to restore the electricity supply to gaza while being shot at - so the electricity company will wait until hamas stops firing rockets..

this whole region is insane..

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Insaneovision replied on

Even if this propaganda were true, Gaza could produce its own electricity if it weren't for the Israeli blockade. Also Hamas only fired because Israel fired first.

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Marc Allan Feldman replied on

I know that it does not fit your narrative, but Feiglin also said:
"Those who choose to remain will receive permanent resident status. After a number of years of living in Israel and becoming accustomed to it, contingent on appropriate legislation in the Knesset and the authorization of the Minister of Interior, those who personally accept upon themselves Israel’s rule, substance and way of life of the Jewish State in its Land, will be offered Israeli citizenship."

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Halim replied on

A`ūdhu billāhi min ash-shaitāni r-rajīmi - b-ismi-llāhi r-raḥmāni r-raḥīmi

“Gaza is part of our Land and we will remain there forever,” Feiglin concludes.

Your land forever? There are only 2 things for humankind which are forever:

1. Jannah (Heaven) and

2. Jahannam (where you will go) and this one WILL BE FOREVER

So you may better understand... You Going To ---> "Gehennom"

May Allah grant the victims the highest of his heavens.

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Prof.Paul Hatgil replied on

A Knesset member stating that all the Palestinians should be killed and take over GAZA. Over a million Palestinians reside in GAZA. HOLOCAUST, GENOCIDE.
The Palestinians were not responsible for the actions of the Nazis but Israelis are acting like Nazis. Bastards.

Ali Abunimah

Co-founder of The Electronic Intifada and author of The Battle for Justice in Palestine, now out from Haymarket Books.

Also wrote One Country: A Bold-Proposal to End the Israeli-Palestinian Impasse. Opinions are mine alone.