Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu brandished a copy of Adolf Hitler's Mein Kampf and called Hamas the “new Nazis’ as he attacked as “ridiculous” the International Court of Justice’s decision to give a nod to South Africa’s genocide claim against Israel.
“The very willingness in The Hague to discuss this ridiculous claim,” Netanyahu told reporters during a press conference in Tel Aviv on Saturday night.“The very fact that it was not dismissed.. proves that many in the world have learned nothing from the Holocaust,” Netanyahu stated.
'South Africa came to ICJ in the name of the new Nazis'
“I have here Hitler's book in Arabic, "Mein Kampf". This book was “found by our soldiers in the homes of civilians in the Gaza Strip. They found extensive anti-Semitic and Nazi literature there. This is what they educate their children about.”Netanyahu said
He stressed that Hamas doesn’t just teach its children to execute terror attacks, but also about how to destroy Israel and the entire Jewish people.
He noted that the 17-member tribunal issued its first statements on the case, on Friday, just two days before International Remembrance Day, an event that was marked already on Friday by the United Nations.
Both events, the one marking Holocaust remembrance day and the reading out of the initial ICJ action on the genocide case, could be viewed simultaneously on the UN’s web page.
“There is no greater absurdity than that precisely yesterday, on the eve of International Holocaust Day, there were those who came to The Hague to accuse us of the false and outrageous charge of genocide.
“In whose name did they come? In the name of Hamas - in the name of the "new Nazis" - who came to commit genocide on us,” Netanyahu said.
He referenced the Hamas-led October 7 attack against Israel in which 1,200 people were killed and some 253 seized as hostages, of which 136 are still in captivity. It was this attack that sparked the Gaza war. South Africa’s opposition to the war and the high death toll, led it to turn to the Hague. Hamas has asserted that over 25,000 people have been killed. Israel has said that 9,000 of them are combatants.
“We will never forget the horrors of October 7. We will not forget the massacre, the rape, the murder, abuses, we will not forget the kidnappings,” Netanyahu said, as he referred to the 136 hostages still held in Gaza.
“The Jewish state rose from the ashes of the Holocaust to ensure a protective force for the Jewish people. Israel, like any sovereign country, has the basic right to defend itself. No one will take this right from us, and no one will stop us from exercising it,” Netanyahu said.
He pledged to continue the IDF’s military campaign in Gaza until Hamas was defeated and ousted from the enclave.
“If we don't eliminate the Hamas terrorists, these "new Nazis", the next massacre is only a matter of time,” he stated.