Statement on genocidal incitement by Israel’s Minister of National Security
The Lemkin Institute for Genocide Prevention and Human Security publishes a statement on 1 September 2026:
The Lemkin Institute strongly condemns the recent inhumane statements of Israeli National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir, in which he called for the deliberate killing of “30 to 40” Palestinians every night in Gaza, even if they pose no immediate danger, because, according to him, “[t]here are people there who are not worthy of life. They shouldn’t live. They’re not even people.” We will be very clear: This statement, which has garnered some outrage in Europe, is an unambiguous declaration of genocidal intent and incitement to genocide. Minister Ben Gvir’s statements, made on a podcast, demonstrate the consequences Israel’s ongoing global impunity: Israeli leaders now feel such unaccountability that they can clearly invoke language closely associated with Nazism – under which the term “Lebensunwertes Leben” (“life unworthy of life”) was used to justify the killing of millions of people – without fear of consequences.
Minister Ben-Gvir’s remarks, rather than being the words of an extremist within a more moderate government, simply translate Israel’s ongoing genocidal campaign into the implicit justification provided by the anti-Palestinian ideology driving the destruction: that Palestinians are not human and their lives therefore have no value. Although Ben-Gvir’s provocative language ruffles some feathers in Israel, largely because he so plainly and crudely states to the world what is driving that nation in its war against the Palestinian people, he is nothing but the ugly, self-congratulatory face of a genocidal state and society.
The recent statements come during a period that is officially presented as a “ceasefire.” They demonstrate the inherently genocidal stance of the Israeli leadership towards the Palestinian people, whether the state is actively bombing civilians or not. Genocide is a crime that involves the undermining of the life prospects of a group, a process that is ongoing across Palestine, regardless of any claim of a ceasefire in Gaza.