Israel on Tuesday dismissed claims of genocidal intent in statements made by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu during Israel's war on Hamas in Gaza.
“This false and preposterous charge reflects a deep historical ignorance,” the Israeli Prime Minister office said in an official statement.
The Israeli response came after South Africa provided evidence accusing Netanyahu of inciting genocide following his use of the term “Amalek” - the eternal enemy of the Jewish people while comparing them to Hamas.
The South African legal team last week used the Israeli PM’s incitement to genocide against the Palestinian people in Gaza in the first hearing before the International Court of Justice in its lawsuit against Israel.
It said that during the war on Gaza, Netanyahu twice used the term “Amalek”.
On October 28, as the military ground operation into Gaza began, the PM addressed Israeli soldiers by saying: “Remember what the Amalekites did to you. We remember, and we are fighting.”
In another message to his soldiers on November 3, Netanyahu repeated the “Amalek” narrative in a social media post, “We have always fought bitter enemies who have risen up against us to destroy us. Equipped with strength of spirit and a just cause, we have stood determined against those who seek our lives.”
He added: “The current fight against the murderers of Hamas is another chapter in the generations-long story of our national resilience. Remember what Amalek did to you.”
Also, in a nationally televised address on October 28, the PM invoked the prophecy of Isaiah, saying: “This is a war between the children of light and the children of darkness. We are the people of light, they are the people of darkness. We shall realize the prophecy of Isaiah!”
According to historians, the Amalekites are Arabs belonging to a tribe of nomadic Bedouin who inhabited the Sinai Peninsula and southern Palestine. In Jewish folklore, the Amalekites are considered to be the symbol of evil.
They are mentioned in the First Book of Samuel in the Torah, which called for their destruction. “Now go, attack the Amalekites and totally destroy all that belongs to them. Do not spare them; put to death men and women, children and infants, cattle and sheep, camels and donkeys,” it says.
On Tuesday, the Prime Minister’s office issued a statement, at the advice of Netanyahu’s lawyers, denying South Africa’s accusations.
“Among the absurdities leveled against Israel at The Hague was the charge that after the October 7 massacre, Netanyahu incited genocide by quoting the biblical phrase 'remember what Amalek did to you.' This false and preposterous charge reflects a deep historical ignorance,” it said.
Furthermore, the statement said this quote is used in other appropriate instances and is even displayed outside The Hague.
“That is why the words on a banner in a permanent exhibit at Yad Vashem, Israel's famed Holocaust Museum, urge visitors to 'remember what Amalek did to you.' This same phrase appears in The Hague at the memorial for Dutch Jews murdered during the Holocaust. Obviously, neither reference is an incitement to genocide of the German people,” Netanyahu’s office said.
The statement concluded with a clarification of Netanyahu’s true intent in using the quote: “So, too, the Prime Minister's reference to Amalek was not an incitement to genocide of Palestinians but a description of the utterly evil actions perpetrated by the genocidal terrorist of Hamas on October 7 and the need to confront them.”
