LUBBAN AL-SHARQIYA: Extreme speech has surged under Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu ‘s far-right government and can be heard at the highest levels ahead of Israel’s Oct. 27 elections.
With just days before the vote, Israeli think tank OFEK shared a spreadsheet with The Associated Press listing 227 extreme comments made this year by officials, as part of an ongoing project tracking incitement. While Netanyahu has not used the rhetoric of his far-right allies, he campaigns with the slogan “right or Palestine,” which some critics have called incitement.
This is the atmosphere in Israel after years of war. In the wake of the Oct. 7, 2023, attacks, a defense minister said the military was fighting “human animals” in Gaza. Such remarks were cited by South Africa in accusing Israel of genocide before the International Court of Justice, allegations Israel vehemently rejects.
The hate speech, amplified by AI and social media, shapes everyday attitudes in Israel. One commentator who backs Netanyahu has called the prime minister’s closest challenger, Gadi Eisenkot, a “monkey,” a comment widely seen as a slur against Israel’s Sephardic, or non-European, Jewish population.
Some extreme comments target Israel’s Arab citizens, who have the right to vote and hold office. But most speech is aimed at Palestinians in Gaza and the occupied West Bank, where violence by Jewish settlers has surged and few arrests are made.
Across the West Bank, riddled with checkpoints and barriers for Palestinians, the Arabic on some road signs is painted out. Settlers jeer and honk as they pass a Palestinian roadside shop in Lubban Al-Sharqiya, where dozens of Israeli flags were placed last month. Owner Mouayad Oweis has been threatened if he removes them.
“Here we face attacks by settlers all the time,” he said, looking worn out. Some of the harshest speech in Israel reflects a desire to see Palestinians like him leave for good.
“It’s endless. It’s insane,” said Achiya Schatz, founder of the Israeli disinformation monitor FakeReporter, of the toxic discourse. “In Israel, it’s quite regular,” and getting worse, he said.
Here are some examples.
“The residents of Gaza must be forced to leave their homes; they must be expelled by all possible means, such as cutting off their water, and whoever wants to drink a bottle will leave. Killing them all would be incredible.”
— Moshe Feiglin, leader of the Zehut party
“They are a ‘fifth column’ in every sense of the term, fervent admirers of Hamas who dream of the day they can destroy us all.”
— Zvi Sukkot, member of parliament, on Arab members
“Anyone who chose to study medicine at institutions that serve as incubators for terrorism and for the denial of the existence of the people in Israel — whether in (the West Bank city of) Nablus or east Jerusalem — cannot be part of the Israeli health care system.”
— Limor Son Har-Melech, member of parliament, on Arab medical workers
“It is not enough merely to isolate Gaza. Its residents must be expelled from it.”
— Zvika Mor, candidate and father of former hostage Eitan Mor
“We destroyed Gaza, and that is the change I brought with the backing of the prime minister.”
— Israel Katz, defense minister
“In fact, there is no such thing as a Palestinian identity.”
— Amichai Chikli, minister for diaspora affairs and combating antisemitism
“In Jenin, there are no innocent civilians. In Jenin, there are no innocent children.”
— Yikzik Kroizer, member of parliament, on the West Bank city
“We are returning home. Gaza is ours.”
— Itamar Ben-Gvir, minister of national security
“If the state of Israel had not been established, and had it not helped the population to which Walid and his friends belong to pursue higher education, they would still be riding camels.”
— Amichai Eliyahu, minister of heritage
“The bottom line is that the salad you are eating contains a great deal of Palestinian poison.”
— Amit Halevi, member of parliament, on produce from the West Bank
“ Mansour Abbas and his colleagues from Ra’am should be sitting in an interrogation room, not in the plenum.”
— Zvi Foghel, member of parliament, on Arab members
“What is happening in Judea and Samaria (the West Bank) should, ultimately, also happen in Gaza.”
— Yariv Levin, justice minister, on settlements
“We are going to ‘Judaize’ the Negev and the Galilee, just as we did in Judea and Samaria.”
— Bezalel Smotrich, finance minister, comparing two regions of Israel to the West Bank