"There are no half measures," said Smotrich
at a government meeting. "Rafah, Deir al-Balah, Nuseirat—total
annihilation."
"'You will blot out the remembrance of Amalek from
under heaven,'" he added, quoting the biblical story of the nation of
Amalek, whose people God commanded the Israelites to exterminate and which
right-wing Israeli leaders have long invoked to justify the killing
of Palestinians.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu also referenced Amalek
in the first weeks of Israel's current escalation against Gaza; Smotrich's
comments came as he and other government officials pushed Netanyahu to forge
ahead with a planned attack on the southern city of Rafah, where more than 1.5
million people have been displaced as other cities across Gaza have been
decimated by Israeli forces.
Ibrahim
Hooper, national communications director for the Council on American-Islamic
Relations (CAIR), called on President Joe Biden to stop condemning thousands
of US college students who have demanded a ceasefire and an end to military aid
for Israel and direct his ire toward the Israeli government, which he
has repeatedly insisted is targeting Hamas despite its genocidal statements and
indiscriminate attacks.
"In case the Israeli government's genocidal intent in
Gaza was unclear to anyone despite its daily war crimes against the Palestinian
people, Israeli Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich's words should serve as
another wake-up call," said Hooper.
"The intent of the Netanyahu government has always been
Palestinian land without Palestinians, and violence has always been the route
to achieve that heinous goal. Instead of condemning college students, President
Biden must condemn Israeli leaders for making and acting on their genocidal
threats."
In
recent months, Israeli officials have stated that the "migration" of
Gaza residents is their ultimate goal in relentlessly attacking the enclave,
that all Palestinians in Gaza are "responsible" for a
Hamas-led attack on southern Israel in October and are legitimate targets, that
the enclave should be "flattened," and that the Israel
Defense Forces is fighting "human animals."
Journalist Mehdi Hasan sardonically suggested that
Smotrich's comments will be deemed acceptable by the Biden administration,
members of Congress, and the U.S. corporate media because he didn't "say
it on a college campus."
"Finance
Minister Bezalel Smotrich, a member of the security cabinet, ought to be fired
immediately over his latest remarks," read an editorial in Haaretz Tuesday
night that was published as police in New York were storming Columbia
University to arrest students.
"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."
Smotrich and others have objected to what National Security
Minister Itamar Ben Gvir on Tuesday called a "reckless"
deal that would allow for the release of scores of Israeli hostages being held
by Hamas in exchange for Palestinian prisoners who have long been detained in
Israeli jails. The deal would include a 40-day halt in fighting.
CAIR also pointed out Tuesday that five units of Israel's security forces have been
accused of committing a "gross violation of human rights," according
to a U.S. State Department analysis.
"Our nation's repeated claim that it supports
international law and human rights," said national executive director
Nihad Awad, "is a cruel illusion."
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