Israeli politician calls for captured Palestinians to be ‘buried alive’

Far-right deputy mayor of Jerusalem describes arrested Palestinians in Gaza as ‘subhuman’ and invokes biblical reference

Dec 8, 2023

The deputy mayor of Jerusalem, Aryeh Yitzhak King, has called for the Israeli army to bury alive hundreds of Palestinian civilians captured in Gaza.

In a post on X on Friday, King, a far-right politician, said the Israeli army was eliminating “Muslim Nazis” in Gaza and suggested it needed to pick up the pace.

The post made specific reference to footage published by the Israeli army showing captured Palestinians stripped to their underwear, kneeling on the ground and being guarded by Israeli soldiers.

King, in his post that has since been deleted for violating rules on X, said: “If it were up to me, I would have dispatched D-9 bulldozers and put them behind the mounds of dirt and would have given the order to cover all these hundreds of ants, while they’re still alive.”

The men are thought to have been arrested in Beit Lahia, in the far north of the Gaza Strip.

Israel said they were Hamas members, however it provided no evidence for the claim which could not be independently verified.

Diaa al-Kahlout, a well-known journalist at al-Araby al-Jadeed, was identified by local media as among those being held.

“They aren’t human beings and not human animals. They’re subhuman and that’s how they should be treated,” King said, adding “Eradicate the memory of Amalek, and never forget.”

Amalek is in reference to a biblical verse, which has also been referenced recently by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, calling for the extermination of every man, woman and child, and their livestock, belonging to an ancient enemy of the Jewish people.

Several far-right Israelis and ultranationalists have in the past referred to Palestinians as modern-day Amalekites, in what commentators have deemed as genocidal language used to justify the killing of Palestinians.

As the deputy mayor, King administers all of the territory within Israel’s Jerusalem municipality, which includes occupied East Jerusalem and almost 400,000 Palestinians.

More than 17,000 Palestinians in Gaza have been killed by Israeli attacks since the war began two months ago. Most of the dead are women and children.

The bombing campaign followed Hamas’s attack on southern Israeli communities on 7 October, which killed around 1,200 Israelis, most of whom were civilians.

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