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Israeli finance minister claims letting Palestinians starve to death is “justified and moral”

By isabelle // 2024-08-07

Far-right Israeli finance minister Bezalel Smotrich has never been shy about admitting he wants to rid the world of Palestinians, and now he has gone on the record as saying that allowing 2 million people in Gaza to die of hunger could be “justified and moral.” The heartless comments came at a conference that was hosted by Israel Hayom, where he voiced his support for preventing aid from reaching those in need in the Strip. However, he said that Israel’s hands are tied and they must let the aid in despite his firm belief that it would be perfectly acceptable to block it. “We are bringing in aid because there is no choice. We can't, in the current global reality, manage a war. Nobody will let us cause two million civilians to die of hunger, even though it might be justified and moral until our hostages are returned,” he said, adding that if it was Israel that was in charge of distributing aid rather than Hamas, the hostages would have been returned by now and the war would be over. The problem, according to him, is that Israel lacks “international legitimacy” in the war. Smotrich is no stranger to controversy and has been calling for the genocide of Palestinians since entering the Knesset nearly a decade ago. He has expressed support for wiping out a Palestinian village, earning a rebuke from the U.S. State Department. In a 2021 speech to Palestinian members of the Knesset, he said: "You are here by mistake because Ben-Gurion did not finish the job in '48 and did not throw you out." He has also said that “there is no such thing as a Palestinian people” in comments the Palestinian Authority slammed as “racist” and “an attempt to falsify history.” In a government meeting earlier this year, he openly called for the elimination of Gaza and its people. "There are no half measures. Rafah, Deir al-Balah, Nuseirat — total annihilation. You will blot out the remembrance of Amalek from under heaven,” he said, quoting a story from the bible in which God commanded the Israelites to eradicate the people of Amalek. These comments prompted the Israeli newspaper Haaretz to issue an editorial calling for Smotrich to be fired, noting: "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 isn’t the only high-profile Israeli politician who isn’t ashamed of his desire to see Palestinians suffer and die. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has also compared Gaza to Amalek in comments that were used as evidence in South Africa’s genocide case against Israel before the International Court of Justice. Some politicians have even advocated hitting the strip with a nuclear bomb.

Gazans suffering from starvation and lack of medical supplies

The Gaza Strip has been under a tight siege since fighting broke out between Israel and Hamas terrorists in Gaza, cutting off the flow of essential food and life-saving medical supplies to innocent Palestinians living in the enclave. Aid delivery has also been very limited, and independent UN investigators determined that Israel is using starvation as a weapon of war against Palestinians. According to the UN, nearly all of the Gazan population is facing acute food insecurity, while half a million people there are suffering from starvation. Israel has said it will not end the war until all Israeli hostages have been freed and Hamas has been wiped out. Nearly 40,000 people have died in Gaza since the war broke out last October. Sources for this article include: MiddleEastEye.net CommonDreams.org Edition.CNN.com

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