Israel's former defence minister compares settler ideology to Nazism

Israel's former defence minister compares settler ideology to Nazism Submitted by Nadav Rapaport on Tue, 06/16/2026 - 08:46 Moshe Ya'alon accused Israeli authorities of failing to investigate attacks against Palestinians and said the religious Zionist movement embraces 'Jewish supremacy ideology' Israel's former defence minister Moshe Ya'alon gives a press briefing in Jerusalem on 15 March 2017 (Thomas Coex/AFP) Off Israel's former defence minister has compared settler ideology to Nazism, and accused authorities of failing to investigate Israelis responsible for killing Palestinian civilians in the occupied West Bank.  In a wide-ranging interview with the Israeli news site Ynet on Sunday, Moshe Ya'alon said that factions within the religious Zionist movement, which is closely aligned with Israeli settlers, hold a "Jewish supremacy ideology". "What is Jewish supremacy? Eighty years after the Holocaust, it's Mein Kampf in reverse. The superior race is us," said Ya'alon, who served as defence under Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu between 2013 to 2016. Ya'alon, who also recently visited Palestinian communities in the occupied West Bank amid attacks by the Israeli army and settlers, described what is happening in the territory as a "disgrace for generations". "The Israeli government is encouraging Jewish pogromists to dispossess Arabs of their land through abuse, including shooting at them," Ya'alon told Ynet, adding that more than 20 Palestinians had been killed in those attacks. "Not a single person has been arrested," Ya'alon said, referring to what he described as a lack of accountability for Israeli settlers and soldiers in the West Bank. He added that the Shin Bet security agency and Israeli police were doing nothing to address the killings. Ya'alon said that during a visit to the southern Hebron area he witnessed the conditions Palestinians are facing. He said he spoke with a Palestinian man who lost his leg after settlers shot him and then prevented him from receiving medical assistance. 'What is Jewish supremacy? Eighty years after the Holocaust, it's Mein Kampf in reverse. The superior race is us' - Moshe Ya'alon, former defence minister Settler attacks against Palestinians have surged since Israel launched its genocidal war on Gaza in October 2023, with the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) recording an average of four a day. The attacks, some of which have been recorded on video, have raised concerns among opposition figures, including Ya'alon, over both their security implications and moral consequences. Left-wing figures have increasingly described Israeli policies in the West Bank as criminal. Earlier this month, Nimrod Sheffer, a candidate in the primaries of the centre-left Democrats party, described a settler attack in the town of Huwara, near Nablus, as a "terror attack". Last week, Sheffer vowed to dismantle settler outposts occupied by young and often violent settlers if elected. In many cases, those outposts serve as bases for settlers known as the "hilltop youth", who have been linked to attacks on Palestinians. Army chief turned critic Ya’alon spent decades in the Israeli military and is known to have taken part in the 1982 invasion of Lebanon, the violent suppression of the first and second Palestinian intifadas, and the 2014 war on Gaza. In 2002, whilst serving as the army's chief of staff, he said: "The Palestinian threat harbours cancer-like attributes that have to be severed and fought to the bitter end." And in 2015, he barred Breaking the Silence – an NGO of former Israeli soldiers who document army abuses – from engaging in activities with the military. But in recent years, the 75-year-old has adopted a more critical tone towards the current government, accusing it in 2024 of carrying out ethnic cleansing in Gaza. Reflecting on his time as army commander in the West Bank, Ya'alon said that he had acted to prevent the occupation from turning Israelis into "Judeo-Nazis", as the late Israeli scholar Yeshayahu Leibowitz had once warned. Israel expels Palestinians from their homes to use them as military posts Read More » "Today, I can’t say he was wrong," Ya'alon said, referring to Leibowitz's claim, adding that he hopes "the next government will reverse this". Ya'alon said Palestinians are being abused in the West Bank and that he is "ashamed that members of my own people are doing such things. And it is being done under government direction." Asked whether Israel could become an apartheid state, the former army chief replied: "absolutely," adding that he supports "a settlement with the Palestinians". "Otherwise, we will become either an apartheid state or a binational state," Ya'alon said, after noting that he does not support removing Israeli settlements from the West Bank. The former defence minister, who retired from politics in 2021, also criticised opposition leaders for failing to commit to including a Palestinian party in a future governing coalition. "My shared values with Mansour Abbas are greater than those I share with Smotrich and Ben Gvir," Ya'alon said, referring to the leader of the Islamist United Arab List party in the Knesset. Abbas has openly declared his desire to be part of a governing coalition, in contrast to the historic position of Palestinian parties in Israel. Occupation Tel Aviv News Post Date Override 0 Update Date Mon, 05/04/2020 - 21:19 Update Date Override 0