Israeli politician critiques the Gaza war's toll on Palestinians and sparks an outcry

TEL AVIV, Israel — Killing babies ''as a hobby.'' ''Expelling a population.'' ''Fighting against civilians.''

It is some of the harshest language against Israel's wartime conduct in Gaza and it came this week from a prominent Israeli politician, sparking a domestic uproar as the country faces heavy international criticism.

It is not uncommon for politicians to criticize Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's war strategy, especially his failure to free all the hostages held by Hamas. What made the comments by center-left opposition party leader Yair Golan rare — and jarring to officials across the political spectrum — was their focus on the plight of Palestinians.

The ensuing controversy underscored how little the war's toll on Gaza's civilians has figured into the public discourse in Israel — in stark contrast to the rest of the world.

Speaking to the Israeli public radio station Reshet Bet, Golan — a former general — said Israel was becoming a pariah state and cautioned that ''a sane country doesn't engage in fighting against civilians, doesn't kill babies as a hobby and doesn't set for itself the goals of expelling a population.''

After the outcry, he said he was referring to the conduct of Israel's far-right government, not of its soldiers, in his remarks.

A rare focus on the plight of Palestinian civilians

Golan's words were a shock to the system because, outside of the country's politically marginalized left, criticism focused on Palestinian civilian suffering and deaths has rarely been spoken publicly in Israel.

The reasons for this include: the trauma Israelis still feel over Hamas' deadly attack on Oct. 7. 2023, Jewish citizens' deep faith in the righteousness of the military, dozens of hostages remain in Gaza and soldiers are dying to rescue them.

Criticism of the war has focused overwhelmingly on Netanyahu. His opponents believe his own political motives have dictated war strategy and his failure to reach a deal with Hamas to release all the hostages — an accusation he denies.

''Part of the Israeli public and media outlets are still trapped in an obsession over the initial shock that started this war,'' said Ehud Olmert, a former prime minister and fierce critic of the current government. ''But this is changing and it's just a matter of time.''

Public opinion polls show that most Israelis support ending the war in exchange for the release of the remaining 58 hostages held by Hamas, around a third of whom are said to be alive.

Opponents of the war have tended to focus on concerns over the fate of the remaining hostages and the risk of soldier casualties in a campaign that many feel has run its course.

While Olmert disputed Golan's choice of words, he said the essence of his remarks ''reflects what many people think.''

Israelis are still traumatized by Hamas' attack

After Hamas' 2023 attack, in which 1,200 people were killed and 251 taken hostage, Israelis rallied behind the military. They saw the war as a just response to the deadliest attack in Israel's history. Many Israelis cannot imagine a future where Hamas remains intact.

Israel's retaliatory war in Gaza has killed more than 53,000 people, mostly women and children, according to local health authorities, whose count doesn't differentiate between combatants and civilians. The fighting has displaced 90% of the territory's roughly 2 million population, sparked a hunger crisis and obliterated vast swaths of Gaza's urban landscape.

While international media coverage has largely focused on the war in Gaza and its toll on civilians there, in Israel the media still devotes heavy attention to the Oct. 7 attack itself and the hostage crisis. Photos of those still held captive line the streets.

Stories about the plight of Palestinian civilians are less prominent, and largely avoid the harshest images emanating from Gaza. Most outlets repeat the official line that Hamas is solely to blame for the civilian toll.

For many Jewish Israelis, it is hard to fathom that their own children, most of whom must enlist in Israel's military, could be committing the crimes that Golan described.

All that has helped solidify a national narrative that views the war as an existential struggle.

''When you fight a war of existence, you don't much think about the suffering of the enemy,'' said Shmuel Rosner, a senior fellow at the Jewish People Policy Institute, a Jerusalem think tank.

Golan's words have sparked outcry before

A former deputy chief of staff of the military, Golan's words have sparked outcry in the past. The most notable occasion was a 2016 speech marking Israel's Holocaust remembrance day, when he compared what he said was an increasingly illiberal atmosphere in Israel to that of Nazi-era Germany.

On Oct. 7, Golan donned his uniform and grabbed a gun to help battle militants during Israel's flailing first response to Hamas' assault. Olmert called him ''one of Israel's greatest warriors."

Golan is not the first public figure to have made such remarks about Israel's conduct in Gaza.

Former defense minister and military chief of staff Moshe Yaalon accused Israel of ethnic cleansing during a major operation last year. Zehava Galon, a former leader of a dovish political party, highlighted the deaths of thousands of children at a recent protest in Tel Aviv.

But unlike them, Golan has his political future at stake, lending more weight to his words.

Pictures of dead Palestinian children

Netanyahu said Golan's words ''echoed disgraceful antisemitic blood libels.'' Benny Gantz, an opposition leader, said Golan's remarks were extreme and false and called on him to recant and apologize, which he did not do.

Cabinet minister Amichay Eliyahu suggested Golan's words inspired an attacker in Washington, who killed two Israeli embassy employees and yelled ''Free, free Palestine'' after he was arrested. ''Yair, the blood of the embassy employees is on your hands,'' he wrote on X. Golan, in response, said it was Netanyahu's far-right government that ''gives fuel to antisemitism and Israel hatred.''

Rosner said Golan's wording on the Palestinian toll was ''uncareful'' and that instead of triggering introspection, they prompted a media debate over Golan himself and the damage his remarks might cause to Israel.

But they could resonate among the steadfast anti-war protest movement, said Alma Beck, an activist who is part of a small contingent of demonstrators who have been holding up pictures of Palestinian children killed in Gaza ever since Israel ended a ceasefire in March. She said the group began as 20 people and has grown to 600, still just a fraction of the thousands attending the broader anti-government protests.

Beck said the protest movement has been receptive to messages that focus on the Palestinian toll, and more signs with that message have been held up by demonstrators in recent weeks. Their main criticism remains that Netanyahu is continuing the war to appease his governing partners and ensure his own political survival.

''I think there is a shift. I think people are starting to connect the dots,'' she said, while noting that the bulk of Israeli society hasn't changed. ''I hope that it will only grow.''

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