Yair Golan, the leader of Israel’s Democrats party, has said Israel is killing Palestinian babies as a “hobby,” sparking a strong backlash from other Israeli Knesset members and government officials.
“Israel is on the path to becoming a pariah state among the nations – like the South Africa of old – if it does not return to behaving like a sane country,” said Golan, a retired IDF major general.
“A sane country does not wage war against civilians, does not kill babies for a hobby, and does not set goals involving the expulsion of populations,” he added.
Golan pinned the blame on the Netanyahu government, saying that it was filled with “people who have nothing whatsoever to do with Judaism – Kahanist types, lacking wisdom, morality, and the ability to manage a state during an emergency.”
In response to Golan’s comments, Netanyahu accused him of “blood libel,” and other Israeli MKs are trying to strip him of his military rank.
Following the criticism, Golan said that he was specifically criticizing the government, not the Israeli military. “The war is the realization of fantasies of [Finance Minister Bezalel] Smotrich and [National Security Minister Itamar] Ben-Gvir. And if we allow these fantasies to become real, we’ll become a pariah state,” he said.
“The IDF is moral and the people are honest, the government is crooked. The war needs to end, the hostages returned and Israel rehabilitated,” Golan added.
Israel’s genocidal war on Gaza has taken a huge toll on babies and children. In March, Gaza’s Health Ministry released the names of 15,613 children who had been killed by the IDF up to that point, which included 876 babies who didn’t make it to their first birthday. The Health Ministry’s list was only based on children who had been fully identified, and their numbers are likely a significant undercount.
Palestinian children have not only been killed by Israeli airstrikes and shelling but also by deliberate gunfire from IDF troops. Doctors who have worked in Gaza have reported seeing young children with bullet wounds to the head and chest on a regular basis.
