TEL AVIV, Israel (AP) 鈥 Fighting 鈥渉uman animals.鈥 Making Gaza a 鈥渟laughterhouse.鈥 鈥淓rasing the Gaza Strip from the face of the earth.鈥
Such inflammatory rhetoric is a key component accusing Israel of genocide at the U.N. world court, a charge that . South Africa says the language 鈥 in comments by Israeli leaders, soldiers and entertainers about Palestinians in Gaza since sparked war 鈥 is proof of Israel鈥檚 intent to commit genocide.
Israeli leaders have downplayed the comments, and some in Israel say they're a result of the trauma from Hamas' attack.
Rights groups and activists say they're an inevitable byproduct of Israel's decades-old, open-ended rule over the Palestinians and that they've intensified during . They say such language has been left unchecked, inciting violence and dehumanizing Palestinians.
鈥淲ords lead to deeds,鈥 said Michael Sfard, a prominent Israeli lawyer. 鈥淲ords that normalize or legitimize serious crimes against civilians create the social, political and moral basis for other people to do things like that.鈥
against Israel opened last week at the at The Hague. South Africa is looking to prove that Israel is committing genocide and that Israel has specific intent to commit genocide. It is using the litany of harsh statements as part of the evidence in its case.
THE COMMENTS
With the ground offensive getting underway in late October, cited the Bible in a televised address: 鈥淵ou must remember what Amalek has done to you.鈥 Amalekites were persecutors of the biblical Israelites, and a biblical commandment says they must be destroyed.
South Africa argued that the remarks showed Israel's intent to commit genocide against Palestinians. Netanyahu denied that this week and said he was referring to Amalek as a way to describe Hamas and its attack.
Two days after the Hamas attack, Defense Minister Yoav Gallant said Israel was 鈥渇ighting human animals,鈥 in announcing a complete siege on Gaza.
Deputy Knesset speaker Nissim Vaturi from the ruling Likud party wrote on X, formerly known as Twitter, that Israelis had one common goal, 鈥渆rasing the Gaza Strip from the face of the earth.鈥 Israeli Heritage Minister Amichay Eliyahu, from the far-right Jewish Power party, suggested that Israel drop a nuclear bomb on Gaza and said there were 鈥渘o uninvolved civilians鈥 in the territory.
made similar remarks as they sang and danced in the early days of Israel鈥檚 ground offensive.
On Oct. 7, a journalist wrote on X that Gaza should become 鈥渁 slaughterhouse鈥 if the roughly by Hamas were not returned.
Military officials and two Israeli pop singers are also cited by South Africa for making inflammatory comments.
鈥淭he language of systemic dehumanization is evident here,鈥 lawyer Tembeka Ngcukaitobi said for South Africa in remarks before the court. 鈥淕enocidal utterances are therefore not out in the fringes. They are embodied in state policy.鈥
for a series of legally binding rulings declaring that Israel is breaching 鈥渋ts obligations under the Genocide Convention鈥 鈥 a decision that could take years 鈥 and for a binding interim order that Israel cease hostilities, a ruling on which is expected in the coming weeks.
ISRAEL鈥橲 RESPONSE
Defending Israel in court, lawyer Malcolm Shaw said the remarks were made mostly by officials with little role in determining Israeli policy, calling them 鈥渞andom quotes鈥 that were misleading and had been in some cases repudiated by Netanyahu.
But Roy Schondorf, a former Israeli deputy attorney general, said in an interview that the statements still carried risk, even out of context: 鈥淚t would have been better if some of these remarks had not been said.鈥
Israel argued that its justice system would take action against unacceptable speech. But critics say statements against Palestinians have gone unpunished or undenounced. Lawyer Sfard appealed to the country鈥檚 attorney general earlier this month on behalf of a group of prominent Israeli figures, demanding to know why the rhetoric hasn't been reined in.
In a statement two days before the case launched at the world court, Attorney General Gali Baharav-Miara said calling for intentional harm to civilians could amount to a criminal offense and that Israeli authorities were examining several such cases, without elaborating. The comments appeared to be aimed at heading off the South African accusations.
Overall, at the world court. Israel says it's fighting a war of self-defense against Hamas after it killed 1,200 people, mostly civilians.
Israeli officials say the country adheres to international law and does its utmost to protect civilians, blaming the high death toll on Hamas for embedding in civilian areas. More than 24,000 people have been killed in Gaza, mostly women and children, according to the Health Ministry in Hamas-ruled Gaza.
Israel also says it is Hamas that exhibited genocidal actions with its attack and genocidal intentions with its violent speech against Israelis, including promises to repeat the Oct. 7 assault and the group鈥檚 commitment to Israel鈥檚 destruction.
THE RHETORIC'S MOVE TO THE MAINSTREAM
The war is being fought under Israel鈥檚 most hardline government ever, dominated by far-right Cabinet ministers with a long record of controversial remarks well before Oct. 7.
Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich once called for . 好色tv Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir talked of 鈥痜or Jewish West Bank settlers over that same right for Palestinians.
And since Oct. 7, such speech has moved further into the mainstream.
Israelis, like Palestinians, have been hardened by decades of deadly conflict and its sense of intractability. Some in Israel say unleashed the current discourse.
鈥淭he intense collective trauma gave free rein to the expression of dark feelings of revenge that in the mainstream was less pleasant to utter until today,鈥 deputy editor-in-chief Noa Landau wrote in the daily Haaretz. She said the statements reflected 鈥渢he social zeitgeist.鈥
While little appears to have been done to confront violent rhetoric directed at Palestinians, Palestinian citizens of Israel who have shown empathy for people in Gaza , according to Adalah, a legal rights group. Police say the speech amounts to incitement, promotes violence or shows support for terror groups.
Adalah says at least 270 Palestinian citizens of Israel have had some sort of interaction with law enforcement 鈥 arrests, investigations or warnings, with at least 86 charged for speech offenses. Some Jewish Israelis who expressed sympathy for Palestinians have also faced arrest or sanction by their employers.
Aeyal Gross, a professor of international law at Tel Aviv University, said that how Israel responds to the inflammatory rhetoric matters in the case with South Africa, because Israel, as a signatory to the Genocide Convention, is prohibited not only from committing genocide but also from inciting to genocide.
Gross said that it was probably too late for Israel to take steps that show it doesn鈥檛 condone such speech. Punishing such remarks could have sent a message to the court as well as to Israeli society that the state doesn鈥檛 tolerate incendiary rhetoric.
鈥淚t鈥檚 important because it would have said, 鈥業t鈥檚 not our intent,鈥" he said. "But it鈥檚 also important because it would have meant we are sending the soldiers on the ground a message not to act in this way.鈥
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