As Israel wages war on Palestinians in Gaza under the guise of eradicating Hamas, allegations of genocide continue mounting after leaked remarks from Israel’s former military intelligence chief Aharon Haliva suggested that for every one Israeli killed on October 7, 2023, 50 Palestinians, including children, should die. According to media outlets, recordings of the statement were broadcast by Israel’s Channel 12 TV.
Since October 7, 2023, the Israeli military has bombarded Gaza with nearly two years of bloodshed. At Final Call presstime, over 62,000 Palestinians—many being women and children—have been killed.
“The fact that there are already 50,000 dead in Gaza is necessary and required for future generations,” said Mr. Haliva, in the translated comments. “For everything that happened on October 7th, for every person … 50 Palestinians must die. It doesn’t matter now if they are children,” he added.
The leaked remarks of the major-general, who resigned in April 2024, added fuel to accusations that Israel is perpetrating genocide, and has amplified allegations of “intent” which is a determining factor of the act by the Geneva Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide.
The Geneva Convention defines genocide as any of the following acts committed with the intent to destroy, in whole or in part, a national, ethnical, racial or religious group, as such:
a. Killing members of the group.
b. Causing serious bodily or mental harm to members of the group.
c. Deliberately inflicting on the group conditions of life calculated to bring about its physical destruction in whole or in part.
d. Imposing measures intended to prevent births within the group.
e. Forcibly transferring children of the group to another group.
Critics argue that Israel has far exceeded the limits of lawful warfare, pointing not only to the massive toll on mostly Palestinian civilians but also to the killing of humanitarian aid workers, medical staff, journalists, and other individuals protected under international law.
With global pressure for ceasefires and repeated calls to halt the war, the International Court of Justice, also known as the World Court, since early 2024, issued provisional measures ordering Israel to “take all measures within its power” to prevent acts that could constitute genocide, including killing, causing serious harm, and creating life conditions that lead to destruction. The court specifically demanded actions against public incitement and direct calls for genocide.
Critics note the leaked recording of Mr. Haliva calling for the deaths of Palestinians “even if they were children” waxes against the very warning the World Court gave Israel.
Additionally, given Mr. Haliva’s senior position as intelligence chief during the Oct. 7, 2023, attack, his words carry weight. They add to a litany of sentiments expressed by Israeli officials during the course of the war, described as genocidal.
“For 22 months, Israel has pursued a policy of systematically destroying Palestinian life in Gaza. Senior officials in government and the military openly speak of devastation and annihilation,” said the Israeli human rights group, B’Tselem in an Aug. 17 posting on X.
The remarks are part of a long line of official statements that expose a deliberate policy of genocide, said the group. The Israeli military implements what its commanders order: deliberate and indiscriminate attacks on Gaza. “In this framework, there are no “uninvolved civilians” in Gaza and every single Palestinian is a target,” B’Tselem continued.
“I’m speaking out of a message to future generations. They need a Nakba every now and then to feel the consequences,” Mr. Haliva said, as reported in multiple media outlets.
Nakba is Arabic, meaning catastrophe, referring to the forced displacement of over 700,000 Palestinians from their lands upon Israel’s creation in 1948.
Mr. Haliva’s reference to Nakba speaks to forced expulsion, which critics argue is Israel’s longtime aim for “Greater Israel,” an expansionist scheme through which Israel seeks to gain control over territories spanning from the Nile to the Euphrates rivers. It covers occupied Palestine and parts of Syria, Lebanon, Jordan, Iraq, Egypt, and Saudi Arabia.
The Honorable Minister Louis Farrakhan spoke of this plan during his 2024 Saviours’ Day message, “What Does Allah, The Great Mahdi and The Great Messiah Have To Say About The War In The Middle East?”
Prime Minister Netanyahu has a vision of “Greater Israel,” Minister Farrakhan explained. “Several states over there, including Saudi Arabia, Jordan, they intend to annex that to what is called “Greater Israel,” he said.
“One of the great prime ministers of Israel is Golda Meir; pay attention to what she said [in a June 15, 1969 interview with Frank Giles, published in The Sunday Times]: ‘There was no such thing as Palestinians. …
It was not as though there was a Palestinian people in Palestine considering itself as a Palestinian people and we came and threw them out and took their country from them.
[To us] They did not exist,’” Minister Farrakhan said, quoting the former prime minister. “She is boldly saying, ‘Yeah, we took your country and threw you out,’ because in their minds you don’t exist,” Minister Farrakhan said.
He added, “Of Allah’s Names (Attributes), there are two that mean ‘He Who causes everything that exists to exist’ (Al-Khaaliq) and ‘He Who produces the means and maintenance of their existence’ (Al-Hayy). So, for this Jewish woman to say they have not, in her mind, any existence at all, see, this is the way they talk now.”
The very notion of Mr. Netanyahu’s most recent comments regarding his desire for a “Greater Israel” has Arab and Islamic states angry.
On Aug. 15, the foreign ministers of 31 Arab and Islamic countries and the secretaries-general of the League of Arab States, the Organization of Islamic Cooperation, and the Cooperation Council for the Arab States of the Gulf signed a joint denunciation of a statement Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu made days earlier to the Israeli media, favoring a “Greater Israel.”
“This is a gross disregard and a flagrant and dangerous violation of the rules of international law and the foundations of stable international relations. It constitutes a direct threat to Arab national security, the sovereignty of states, and regional and international security and peace,” read the joint statement in part.
The statement further warned of the consequences of “Israel’s expansionist policies and attempts to annex Palestinian lands, and the violations against Islamic and Christian holy sites, particularly Al-Aqsa Mosque,” in occupied Jerusalem.