{"id":226705,"date":"2024-05-02T17:20:44","date_gmt":"2024-05-02T21:20:44","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/stateofthenation.co\/?p=226705"},"modified":"2024-05-02T17:48:04","modified_gmt":"2024-05-02T21:48:04","slug":"israeli-finance-minister-denounced-for-calling-for-total-annihilation-of-gaza","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/stateofthenation.co\/?p=226705","title":{"rendered":"

Israeli Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich demands the ‘total destruction’ of all cities and refugee camps in Gaza<\/span><\/b><\/h2>"},"content":{"rendered":"

Israeli Finance Minister Denounced for
\nCalling for ‘Total Annihilation’ of Gaza<\/h1>\n

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Bezalel Smotrich, Israeli finance minister, speaks during a rally with supporters in the southern Israeli city of Sderot on October 26, 2022. (Photo: Gil Cohen-Magen\/AFP via Getty Images)<\/p><\/div>\n

“But\u2026 did he say it on a college campus? Otherwise, it’s just not news. Sorry, them’s the rules,” said one journalist sardonically.<\/h1>\n

by Julia Conley
\nCommon Dreams<\/p>\n

In just the latest example of a top Israeli official openly calling for the elimination of Gaza<\/a>\u00a0and the 2.3 million Palestinians who live there, Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich on Tuesday demanded the destruction of cities and refugee camps in the blockaded enclave.<\/p>\n

“There are no half measures,”\u00a0said\u00a0<\/a>Smotrich at a government meeting. “Rafah, Deir al-Balah, Nuseirat\u2014total annihilation.”<\/p>\n

“‘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\u00a0invoked<\/a>\u00a0to justify the killing of Palestinians.<\/p>\n

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