‘Like Nazi Germany’ – Ex-IDF commander claims ‘absolute apartheid’ in Judea and Samaria

“Anyone who compares us to Germany or the Nazi regime needs to be examined,” said Likud MK Danon, former Israeli ambassador to the UN.

By Adina Katz, World Israel News

A former deputy director of the Mossad intelligence agency and retired senior commander in the Israeli army compared the IDF’s control of swathes of Judea and Samaria to Nazi Germany following a tirade against the judicial overhaul.

Amiram Levin, 75, is an outspoken opponent to the ongoing legislation aimed at reforming Israel’s judicial system. Levin served as commander of the IDF’s northern division, headed the elite Sayeret Matkal unit and held a senior position within the Mossad.

He tearfully told a left-wing crowd during a rally in Tel Aviv on Saturday evening that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu “wants to give the keys to the country” to “lawbreakers and warmongers,” including “ministers who encourage massacring Palestinians subject to our rule.”

In an interview with the Kan public broadcaster on Sunday morning, Levin went even further, saying that there has been “absolute apartheid” in Judea and Samaria since the 1967 Six-Day War.

Levin said that the IDF is “beginning to be complicit in war crimes” due to what he charged was increasingly aggressive behavior from settlers.

Acknowledging media reports that widespread refusals by reservists are threatening operational capabilities, Levin charged that “settler violence” is “10 times worse than the issue of [military] readiness and training hours.”

Levin said that the IDF presence in Hebron, which has a rich Jewish history dating back thousands of years and is one of Judaism’s four holiest cities, is akin to Nazi occupation.

“Walk around Hebron and you will see streets where Arabs cannot walk, just like what happened in [Nazi] Germany,” he said.

Levin failed to acknowledge bloody massacres of Jews at the hands of Arabs in Hebron, including in 1929, before the establishment of Israel. As explained by Jewish Virtual Library, “By the time the massacre ended, 67 Jews lay dead – their homes and synagogues destroyed – and the few hundred survivors were relocated to Jerusalem.  The aftermath left Hebron barren of Jews for the first time in hundreds of years.”

The former military man appeared to blame Jews living in Judea and Samaria for Palestinian violence, again failing to acknowledge a long history of Islamically-motivated anti-Jewish murders in Israel and the greater Middle East.

Calling the IDF “rotten to its core” due to its role in securing Jewish communities in Judea and Samaria, Levin said, “honestly, I am not angry at the Palestinians, I am angry at us. We are killing ourselves from the inside.”

“Anyone who compares us to Germany or the Nazi regime needs to be examined,” said Likud MK Danon, former Israeli ambassador to the UN. “It seems that at some point in their lives, their judgment deteriorates.”

Amiram LevinDanny DanonHebronHebron Jewish communityHebron MassacreIDFJudea and SamariaJudicial reform