The New Israel Fund recently announced that it “is undertaking a comprehensive survey to identify those most involved in inciting racism and violence.”
Incitement to violence and intolerance is a particularly troubling problem plaguing Israeli society today. This problem is all the more severe when the incitement comes from respected public figures and political leaders. But will the New Israel Fund will also include anti-Jewish incitement which comes from the Israeli Left?
A brief online search unearthed a myriad of following examples which should be included in the NIF’s survey – all from the Israeli Left.
Incitement against Jewish residents of Judea and Samaria:
“Fascism cannot be stopped with rational arguments. This can be stopped only by force, and when there is willingness to risk a civil war. When necessary, we shall have to forcibly deal with the settlers in Ofra or in Elon Moreh. Only those ready to storm Ofra with tanks will stem the fascist tide, which threatens to engulf Israel’s democracy.”
— Prof. Zeev Sternhell, Davar, April 4, 1988. Sternhell was later awarded the Israel Prize.
“My true contribution would be if I grabbed a sub-machine-gun, instead of a pen and pencil, and killed them.”
— Artist Yigal Tumarkin, Hadashot, September 28, 1988. Tumarkin was later awarded the Israel Prize.
“It a messianic junta, closed-minded and cruel, a band of armed gangsters, perpetrators of crimes against humanity, sadists, pogromists, and murderers, who crept out of some dark corner of Judaism… from out of cellars of bestiality and defilement… in order to impose their a bloodthirsty and insane blood worship.”
— Writer Amos Oz, Yediot Aharonot, June 8, 1989.
“The time has come to bury them.”
— “Peace Activist” and Gush Shalom founder Uri Avnery, HaOlam Hazeh, November 1988.
“They are not my brothers… [There] will be a civil war, [and] I will run to it… and I will crush their flesh with mighty blows, to rout them… I will go forth to the foe in order to fight, for once, a justified war… Much blood will be shed.”
— Editorial, HaKibbutz newspaper, August 1995.
“The Palestinians aren’t the first we drove insane. Look what happened to the Germans… What brought the Germans and brings the Palestinians to such hatred of us? … We have a tough history. We came here out of a Jewish experience and the settlements are messing it up.”
— Author A. B. Yehoshua, Ma’ariv, June 20, 2002.
In response to a question about what to do with settlers who refuse to willingly evacuate their homes: “I will say this in clear words: There is more than one ‘Altalena’ in the life of every state or nation… The political leadership in the State of Israel has already taken difficult decisions when the alternative was clear, and in the future the political leadership will have to take difficult decisions when the alternative is clear.” (Note: In the ‘Altalena’ incident of June 1948, the Irgun ship ‘Altalena’ was sunk by the Palmah, and 16 unarmed survivors who jumped overboard were then shot to death while trying to swim from the ship to shore).
— Former GSS chief Ami Ayalon, interview, Yedioth Ahronoth, November 14, 2003.
“If a settler child or two get killed, the settler parents say: ‘No problem. We’ll make four instead and all will be OK.'”
— Artist Yigal Tumarkin, February 13, 2004. Tumarkin was later awarded the Israel Prize.
“When I fashioned a pig wearing tefillin, I merely meant to display a fetish to deride those settlers, because settlements are idolatry. Because of them we’re in trouble with the whole world and our neighbors.”
— Artist Yigal Tumarkin, April 22, 2004, on why he sculpted a pig wearing tefillin.
“They should not try to frighten a nation — tens of thousands of whose sons were killed in wars to ensure its very existence — with [the prospect of] the shedding of blood in the cause of peace.”
— Journalist Yoel Marcus, Haaretz, “Don’t Try and Frighten Us with Bloodshed, July 9, 2004.
“If, heaven forbid, they will force us, we will be compelled to open fire [against the settlers]… It will be necessary to pull the trigger, slowly, responsibly, coolheadedly, and intelligently.”
— Meretz MK Avshalom Vilan, interview with Ari Shavit, Haaretz, September 5, 2004, discussing the prospect of a civil war against the settlers.
“The desirable thing here is that there be a civil war between Left and Right — a war between the settlers and leftists… Civil war is the way to solve the problem we face. We’ve tried all other means and none worked… long live death.”
— Filmmaker Judd Ne’eman, Ma’ariv, July 7, 2011.
Incitement against various Religious Jewish Communities in Israel:
“The settlers are lunatics, I get angry even if I only hear about them… I cannot tolerate small children with peyot [sidelocks], that they have a mori [traditional Yemenite teacher], who teaches them to be Yemenites and not Israelis. I wanted to grab their mori and break his bones.”
— Actor Shaike Levi, Yedioth Aharonot, November 2003.
“The knitted kippot on the heads of IDF soldiers remind me of the swastikas worn by Nazi soldiers.”
— General (Res) Shlomo Gazit, public speech, March 1998.
“Secular Israel is the occupied territories of the religious parties. If the secular desire to live here, they have no choice but to start an intifada. Yes, I am prepared to throw the first stone.”
— Poet Yonatan Gefen, Maariv, May 1998.
“The hareidim should be hung from electric poles.”
— Editorial, Hadashot newspaper, October 1992.
“Only if we succeed in wiping out this terrible evil thing, the taking over of our life by the black devil, can we nurture all that is good in the state.”
— Former Meretz MK Naomi Hazan, Humanist Judaism Federation convention, 1992.
“When I see the hareidim, I understand the Nazis.”
— Artist Yigal Tumarkin, Tel Aviv Magazine, November 4, 1988 (see above).
“We have established anti-haredi reconnaissance units that will knock off the heads of the hareidim.”
–Tel Aviv-Jaffacity councillor Michael Roeh, Meretz party faction meeting, June 1998.
“The hareidim should be hung from an electric pole.”
— Professor Uzi Amnon, interview, Kol Ha’ir newspaper.
“The hareidim suck from the same sinister passions which nurtured the Nazis.”
— Meretz founder Shulamit Aloni.
“We have to storm Meah Shearim with machine guns and mow them down.”
— “Peace Activist” and Gush Shalom founder Uri Avnery.
“I would take all those weird people from Shas, Aguda, Degel HaTorah, tie their beards together, and light a match.”
— Journalist and Ma’ariv Editor, Amnon Dankner.
“Hareidim are dancing outside my house in central Carmel. Is it possible to ask Hitler to return for just an hour to help? … My hatred for hareidim such as they are is no different from to the hatred of Hitler for the Jews. I do not intend to apologize for this, nor I do not intend to understand, to include, or to accept them. So long as they are sucking [the blood] of this state — it is best that they should die.”
— Orly Mizrachi,Haifaleftist activist, on Facebook, June 4, 2012.
Incitement against Israel’s Prime Minister:
“I was angry, and I wrote that I had a wet dream that I shot Bibi Netanyahu twice. They didn’t print this. And why is it permitted to print… while they continually reject my wet dream about rubbing out Bibi Netanyahu?”
— Poet Yonatan Gefen, Maariv, 1996.
“We need to take a political decision and start fighting in an organized way. We should stop being so stately. We should cut off Netanyahu’s head.”
— Labor MK Ephraim Oshaya, Labor party faction meeting, August, 6, 1997.
“We should roll up our sleeves and shoot in all directions. I agree with Oshaya, who said we should behead Netanyahu.”
— Labor MK Eitan Cabel, Labor party faction meeting, August, 6, 1997.
Miscellaneous Incitement Against Jews:
“The Jew’s outward strangeness and the pretentious notion that God chose us… caused violent surrounding cultures to clash… with this arrogant minority… The image of the cunning, ambitious scoundrel, lending money at exorbitant interest, turned the bent, hook-nosed, bearded Jew into the enemy of civilization… which didn’t help belatedly-enlightened Jews.”
— Artist Yigal Tumarkin, op-ed, Hadashot, November 14, 1988 (see above).
“There is no doubt regarding the legitimacy of the armed resistance in the territories proper [as opposed to inside the Green Line]. Were the Palestinians wiser, they would concentrate their attacks against the settlements… instead of placing bombs on the western side of the Green Line.”
— Prof. Zeev Sternhell, Haaretz, May 11, 2001. Sternhell was later awarded the Israel Prize.
“If you want to picture what true peace is, then picture the head of Ehud Barak impaled on a stake… The only thing good about the wall is that one day we will be able to stand up all the people from the Labor Party and the Likud, and all those sons of bitches who man checkpoints; we can stand them all up in a row and simply shoot them all, one by one.”
— “Anarchists Against the Wall” leader Federico Gomes, Tel Aviv, Channel 2, September 2008.
“I call on the world to come and help break these scoundrels’ necks.”
— Dr. Eyal Nir, lecturer in chemistry at Ben Gurion University, Facebook, June 11, 2011, on people who marched through Jerusalem with flags on Yom Yerushalayim.
“There is little difference between Hebron youth and Hitler Youth, between the motivation and conditions of service in some of the IDF’s elite units and that of the Waffen SS, between Israeli soccer fans and those of the Third Reich, and between the Old Testament and Mein Kampf.”
— Hebrew University Professor Moshe Zimmerman.
“The common and well-worn motto is that the greatest part of the justification for the establishment of Israel lies in the Holocaust. If that is so, then we owe thanks to Hitler.”
— Hebrew University Professor Moshe Zimmerman.
So again, will the New Israel Fund will also include anti-Jewish incitement coming from the Israeli Left?