Israel wants to build the most moral concentration camp in the world
Palestinians gather at an aid distribution point set up by the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation near the Nuseirat refugee camp in the central Gaza Strip on 25 June 2025
The Haaretz lead editorial on 10 July 2025:
For President Donald Trump’s attention: When the person submitting your name as a candidate for the Nobel Peace Prize is promoting the construction of a concentration camp – into which the entire population of the Gaza Strip will be herded, with no ability to leave unless people “choose” to emigrate – it’s not clear whether he is being a sycophant or sabotaging your candidacy.
The support given by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to the criminal plan being promoted by Defense Minister Yisrael Katz, involving the construction of a “humanitarian city” on the ruins of Rafah, which would incarcerate all the enclave’s residents, is a moral and historic nadir for the State of Israel and the Jewish people. No matter how they try in Israel to wrap this move with laundered epithets, they are talking about a concentration camp.
It appears that in Israel they believe that it’s sufficient to attach the label “humanitarian” to convert every act into a legitimate one. Just like the term “the most moral army in the world”, which is no longer connected to what IDF soldiers are doing, they’re now trying to present a concentration camp to be used for the transfer of population as the most moral one in the world.
An Israeli source said Wednesday that “the plan is to move all civilian Gazans southward to a large tent city in Rafah, in which they’ll have hospitals and plenty of food.” He added: “Just like the prime minister said, as far as I’m concerned, they can be given Ben & Jerry’s ice cream.” A source of blue-and-white pride: In our concentration camp they have ice cream.
In Israel, you’re not allowed to make comparisons, and when you do compare to benighted periods, something always “goes wrong in the translation.” As long as the concentration camp isn’t a waystation on the way to gas chambers, it’s easy to refute the comparison and thereby normalize almost any evil. As long as it’s not a Holocaust, everything’s okay. Thus the historical comparison, which was meant to be cautionary, becomes a tool for muzzling critics and for normalizing the evil.
But nothing is okay. On Wednesday, 26 people were killed in the Gaza Strip, and at least 80 the day before that. Most of them had been uprooted from their homes, including women and children. The IDF attacked densely crowded areas, including a schoolyard, shelters, tents and an aid distribution center. The Red Cross has warned that medical services are about to collapse due to the spike in the number of people hurt at aid distribution locations. Most of the dead were trying to obtain food. Among the wounded are children, youths, mothers and elderly people. “The extent and frequency of these events are unprecedented,” said sources at the Red Cross.
The Gaza war has no military or diplomatic objectives, other than unacceptable ones: a second Nakba and/or a “voluntary” transfer of all Palestinians. This war must be stopped immediately. The hostages must be brought back, and the army must withdraw from the enclave. Control must be transferred to the Palestinian Authority within an Arab-international framework, and the rebuilding of the Strip must be allowed to begin. One cannot lend a hand, whether by assent, silence or indifference, to a plan over which a black flag is fluttering.
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