Netanyahu’s comms minister makes openly genocidal statement on Gaza civilians

Slomo Karhi makes the ICC/ICJ’s job easy by calling for list of clearly criminal measures

Israeli Communications Minister Slomo Karhi has made an unambiguously genocidal statement, in support of Donald Trump’s plan to force around two million people out of Gaza into Egypt and Jordan, that should surely see him added to boss Benjamin Netanyahu and former defence minister Yoav Gallant on the International Criminal Court (ICC) list of arrest warrants for Israeli war criminals – and make the International Court of Justice (ICJ) genocide case against Israel even more of a slam dunk than any honest and reasonable person already considers it.

Karhi, a member of Netanyahu’s Likud party, called for the ethnic cleansing of Gaza and the complete cut-off of power, water, communications and humanitarian aid in Gaza, and the use of ‘cruel and disproportionate force’ against against everyone in the besieged territory, if all remaining Israeli prisoners of war are not released by Saturday – echoing comments by Netanyahu and by US president Donald Trump, who has threatened to ‘unleash hell’ on Gaza’s population.

The Saturday deadline for all captives to be released has never been part of the ceasefire agreement, under which three further Israeli captives are due to be released this weekend, and Israel has breached its ceasefire obligations daily by bombing and shooting civilians in Gaza, but in a post on X Karhi said:

When dealing with a Nazi terrorist organization, we must be prepared for such violations. Hamas thinks it can gamble on the lives of our abductees – a serious mistake. There are no more “beats”, no more games.

The response must be exactly as President Trump has proposed: completely halt humanitarian aid, cut off electricity, water and communications, and use cruel and disproportionate force until the abductees return. At the same time, to cleanse Gaza of all “noninvolved.”

The immigration [ie forced displacement from Gaza] program must be launched immediately. The time has come to open the gates of hell to Hamas – and this time, without any restrictions on our heroic fighters.

The idea that Israel’s military has obeyed any ‘restrictions’ in its slaughter of 200-300,000 civilians in Gaza, mostly women and children, is sickening. That the ‘cruel and disproportionate force’ would kill even more Israelis than Israeli already has seems not to matter. Karhi is no stranger to unhinged reactions – just today, he responded to reports that he will be investigated in connection with his actions on the subject of Israeli media by describing his opponents as ‘the rule of law gang’.

But the call for the starvation of the Palestinians of Gaza and depriving them of power, communications and all that is necessary for life, along with forced displacement, are exactly what correctly prompted the ICC to issue its arrest warrants for Netanyahu and Gallant. Karhi must surely now be subject to the same if international law is to retain any meaning at all. Trump too, for that matter.

The so-called ‘civilised’ governments of Israel, the US and the western governments that support them continue to expose their real nature, in all its murderous, cruel and imperialist horror.

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