Ethnic cleansing in Gaza: Why did a former Israeli army chief speak out?
Nine years ago this week, Moshe "Bogi" Ya'alon, Israel's defence minister at the time, banned the Israeli veterans' group Breaking the Silence from taking part in activities with the Israeli army over its criticism of soldiers' conduct in the occupied Palestinian territories.
Accusing the left-wing organisation of having "malicious motives", Ya'alon said: "Israel supports the combat soldiers and commanders who go out and fight for it, and we will know how to protect every soldier if any element persecutes or tries to harm them during visits abroad."
So, it came as a huge surprise when Ya'alon, who served as a commander of the Israeli army's West Bank Division and head of the military's Central Command – roles which preserve and strengthen Israel's occupation in violation of international law - accused the Israeli government of committing ethnic cleansing in Gaza.
"There is no Beit Lahia, there is no Beit Hanoun. They [Israeli soldiers] are operating in Jabalia and are essentially clearing the area of Arabs," Ya'alon said in an interview with the Israeli channel Democrat TV.
"The path we are being dragged down is occupation, annexation and ethnic cleansing in the Gaza Strip - population transfer, call it what you want, and Jewish settlements," he added.
The remarks triggered outrage across Israel, with Itamar Ben Gvir, Israel's far-right national security minister, lashing out against the criticism of the world's so-called "most moral army".
'They are pushing the [Israeli army] to carry out what is defined as war crimes, we are already there'
- former Israeli Defence Minister Moshe Ya'alon
"His old age shames him - Ya'alon's distorted and false statements about 'ethnic cleansing' are very serious and directly contribute to the defamation of the State of Israel in the eyes of the world," Ben Gvir wrote on X.
Nissim Vaturi, a member of parliament for the ruling Likud Party, said that Ya'alon "should be hospitalised and put on trial for treason".
Criticism also came from leading Israeli politicians, with former defence minister, Yoav Gallant, accusing Ya'alon of lying.
"Ya'alon's words are a lie that aids our enemies and harms Israel," he said.
Meanwhile, Israeli President Isaac Herzog said: "The claim that IDF [Israeli] soldiers are committing genocide and ethnic cleansing is not only erroneous and completely detached from reality, but also harms our soldiers and commanders and the security and political efforts of the state of Israel in times of war."
Despite the backlash, Ya'alon did not retract his remarks and instead repeated them the next day during an interview with Israel's Channel 12.
In his interview with Yaron Avraham, where the presenter tried his hardest to get Ya'alon to repeat the oft-repeated line that the Israeli army is the "most moral army in the world", Ya'alon said his criticism was not directed at the Israeli military, but at the country's politicians.
"They are pushing the IDF [Israeli army] to carry out what is defined as war crimes, we are already there," he said.
Avraham clearly did not want to talk about the horrors unfolding in Gaza, where at least 45,000 Palestinians have been killed, and the entire population has been displaced multiple times.
Instead, Avraham wanted to discuss how great Israeli soldiers were and why Ya'alon could even dare dispute this.
Israel's tattered image
In an analysis
of Ya'alon's remarks, political analyst Meron Rapoport wrote that
Ya'alon didn't seek to highlight the plight of beleaguered Palestinians,
but was instead concerned about preserving Israel's so-called
"democratic character".
The reasoning is that if Israel annexes and starts resettling in the
Gaza Strip, the boundaries between Israel being a democracy for Jews and
a dictatorship for the Palestinians will become blurred.
It's an astute observation because a large number of Jewish Israelis have no problem with the ethnic cleansing in Gaza.
According to a poll carried out by Israel's Channel 12 last month, nearly 40 percent of Israel's Jewish population supports the resettlement of Gaza.
So, it looks like the only problem Israel has with Ya'alon's remarks is that he spoke about ethnic cleaning publicly, which the world's media, including Arab television networks, rushed to cover.
For Israel's politicians, the media focus on the genocide and ethnic cleansing in Gaza is something they don't want Israelis to become entangled in, given the ongoing cases against Israel and its leaders at the International Criminal Court and the International Court of Justice.
But it's something they really can't avoid.
In a bombshell report last week, Amnesty International became the first major international human rights organisation to declare that Israel is carrying out a genocide in Gaza and its war on the enclave is being carried out with "the specific intent to destroy Palestinians in Gaza".
Israel is clearly concerned about its image and the threat of legal accountability, and has already tried to rubbish the Amnesty report by calling it one-sided and biased.
But with the genocidal war in Gaza showing no end in sight, and the Israeli state constantly seizing Palestinian lands in the West Bank, and now in Syria too, there is no simple way for Israel to improve its image in the world and pretend to be something it's not.
The views expressed in this article belong to the author and do not necessarily reflect the editorial policy of Middle East Eye.