Israel: Former MP invokes Hitler in call to expel Gaza's 'Islamo-Nazi' population
Israeli politician and former Likud lawmaker Moshe Feiglin invoked Adolf Hitler when urging in a TV interview the expulsion of Palestinians from the Gaza Strip, whom he described as "Islamo-Nazis".
In a panel discussion on Channel 12, Feiglin called for resettlement in Gaza and argued Israel should transform the Palestinian territory into a "Hebrew Gaza".
"We are not guests in our country, this is our country, all of it," he said in the video shared on Sunday in Israeli social media.
"As Hitler said, 'I cannot live if one Jew is left'. We can't live here if one 'Islamo-Nazi' remains in Gaza."
Feiglin represented Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's Likud between 2013 and 2015 before leaving it to establish his own far-right Zehut ("Identity") party.
New MEE newsletter: Jerusalem Dispatch
Sign up to get the latest insights and analysis on Israel-Palestine, alongside Turkey Unpacked and other MEE newsletters
Earlier this year, he announced his intention to run against Likud in the next elections, saying the decision was spurred by what he described as Netanyahu's failures in handling of the Gaza Strip.
Netanyahu has led a devastating war on the Gaza Strip for over eight months, which has killed over 37,000 Palestinians and left the besieged enclave an uninhabitable hellscape.
Feiglin, addressing a far-right rally calling for the deportation of Palestinians from Gaza in January, said: "We need a different prime minister who is willing to stick his neck out to win. Zehut will provide, whenever elections happen, such a candidate.
"For us, the war in Gaza is not merely a defensive war. It's a war of liberation, the liberation of the land from its occupiers," Feiglin told crowds of supporters.
"As Hitler, may his name be erased, once said: "I cannot live in this world if there is one Jew left in it", we could not live in this land if even one such Islamo-Nazi remains in Gaza, and not before we return to Gaza and turn it into Hebrew Gaza."
— B.M. (@ireallyhateyou) June 16, 2024
Moshe Feiglin, former Likud… pic.twitter.com/vqQfffgpqv
Feiglin has also previously called for the “complete destruction of Gaza, before invading it ... Destruction like Dresden and Hiroshima, without a nuclear weapon" in an interview with Al Jazeera in October 2023.
Earlier this month, Feiglin participated in provocative raids of Al-Aqsa Mosque along with dozens of ultra-nationalist Israelis.
Israel's far-right National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir has repeatedly called for the expulsion of Palestinians from Gaza, arguing that the reconstruction of settlements in the enclave was the only solution to the current conflict.
In an interview with an Israeli TV channel in May, Ben Gvir said he wants to move to Gaza after the end of the war and once the enclave has been resettled by Israel.
In January, several Israeli ministers spoke at a conference promoting the resettlement of Gaza while attendees chanted "death to Arabs".
After capturing Gaza in the 1967 Middle East war, Israel built 21 settlements in the enclave that were populated by Jewish settlers.
In 2005, however, then-prime minister Ariel Sharon dismantled and evacuated the settlements, a move that was staunchly opposed by many right-wing Israelis, including Ben Gvir.
Middle East Eye delivers independent and unrivalled coverage and analysis of the Middle East, North Africa and beyond. To learn more about republishing this content and the associated fees, please fill out this form. More about MEE can be found here.