Smotrich Must Pay the Price for His Repeated Calls for Genocide of Palestinians [View all]

[Israeli]

Apr 30, 2024
Haaretz Editorial

Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich, a member of the security cabinet, ought to be fired immediately over his latest remarks. That's how any properly run country would act, and all the more so a country against which the International Court of Justice in The Hague has issued provisional measures requiring it to refrain from genocide, including one requiring it to deal properly with incitement to genocide.
On Monday, Smotrich urged Israel to destroy its enemies. "There are no half-jobs," he said. "Rafah, Deir al-Balah, Nuseirat – total destruction. 'Thou shalt blot out the remembrance of Amalek from under heaven.' There is no place for them under heaven." Plain and simple – total destruction. There is no room for interpretation.

In any normal country, five minutes after his remarks were reported, the prime minister would have convened a press conference, fired the minister in disgrace and publicly declared that this isn't his way, and that people with such a worldview have no place in the Israeli government. But in Netanyahu's Israel, in the midst of the Kahanist Spring, the leader of the far right is openly advocating genocide, but there's not one person in the government willing to stand up and say "enough – it's either the despicable Kahanists or us."

Let's recall that South Africa's application against Israel at the ICJ in January was based on a plethora of dangerous, inflammatory statements by a long list of public figures – from the president through the prime minister, other ministers and Knesset members to famous singers and media personalities – following Hamas' attack on October 7. The application cited these statements, and the fact that the legal system hasn't punished the inciters, as being indicative of an intent to commit genocide.
The weakness that Attorney General Gali Baharav-Miara and State Prosecutor Amit Aisman have demonstrated in dealing with such inflammatory statements forms part of the basis of South Africa's application against Israel. A few days before the court heard South Africa's application, Baharav-Miara announced that she had started to take action against incendiary statements by senior officials. Smotrich's latest remarks require her immediate intervention.

In today's rotten Israel, not only does a man like Smotrich not feel threatened, he even dares to threaten to leave the government if Israel signs a deal that would free the hostages and thus postpone the planned operation in Rafah. That happened on Tuesday, while he was presenting his party's position on the deal. Smotrich also never misses an opportunity to continue inciting, this time against the United Arab List. "Today, everyone sees the ties between the UAL and Hamas," he said. "I was willing to pay a political price back then, and I'm willing to pay a heavy public price this time as well to prevent this existential danger," he said of the proposed deal.

In fact, we can only hope that Smotrich will "pay the price" of quitting the government, and the sooner, the better. Until that happens, the attorney general must do her job and take action against him.

The above article is Haaretz's lead editorial, as published in the Hebrew and English newspapers in Israel.

Source : Haaretz

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