Israel's Chief Rabbi Says Palestinians Are Not a People, Days After Security Minister Called for Killing 30 to 40 a Night

Israel's Chief Rabbi David Yosef told an audience at the Gush Katif Museum in West Jerusalem that Palestinians are not a people and have no rights, according to Al Jazeera. He also claimed Gaza and cities in the occupied West Bank belong to Jews and called for Gaza's destruction and Jewish resettlement there.

According to a report from StoryChase citing regional media outlets, Yosef made the remarks on August 21 in response to a question about whether it's permissible to pray for a Jewish return to Gaza. "Gaza is the land of Israel, Gaza is ours, Nablus is ours, Jenin is ours," Yosef reportedly said. "Pray that we are able to return to all our places."

Yosef is Israel's Sephardic Chief Rabbi, a religious post with real authority over Jewish law and rabbinical courts in Israel, but not a government office. His remarks don't set state policy. StoryChase notes that his position gives the comments "significant weight within religious and some political circles," even though they contradict the position Israel itself has taken in prior peace processes, where it recognized the Palestinian Authority as a negotiating partner.

The comments landed while UN envoy Mladinov was in Cairo working with mediators on a postwar roadmap for Gaza. Crypto Briefing's coverage frames the remarks as a potential complication for Egypt, Qatar, Turkey, and the U.S. as they try to hold together a ceasefire that Crypto Briefing describes as fragile.

A pattern, not an isolated remark

Yosef's comments don't stand alone. Five days earlier, on August 17, CBS News reported that Israel's far-right National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir said on a podcast that Israeli forces should carry out targeted assassinations of "30 to 40" people per night in Gaza.

"There are people there who are not worthy of life. They shouldn't live. They're not even people," Ben-Gvir said, according to CBS News, in comments made to Rom Braslavski, a former Gaza hostage who hosts the podcast. Ben-Gvir also said he sees "all of Gaza as ours" and called for settlement expansion "throughout Gaza" alongside encouraging Palestinian "emigration," while ruling out any leniency for "terrorists."

CBS News reported that legal experts and the UN Secretary-General have warned that forcing Palestinians out of Gaza could amount to ethnic cleansing, and that Israel's West Bank settlements are considered illegal by the UN and the International Court of Justice, a position Israel's government disputes.

Ben-Gvir holds an actual cabinet post. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's coalition depends on far-right support from Ben-Gvir's bloc, and CBS News noted Netanyahu publicly rebuked him earlier this year over his treatment of pro-Palestinian flotilla activists in custody. Five U.S. allies—Australia, Canada, New Zealand, Norway and the U.K.—sanctioned Ben-Gvir last year for what CBS described as "inciting violence against Palestinians in the West Bank." The Netherlands, Spain and Slovenia followed.

Iran's Deputy Foreign Minister Kazem Gharibabadi posted on X that Ben-Gvir's comments should be "recorded and preserved for the day of reckoning and trial of these criminals." CBS News noted that statements like this from senior Israeli officials have already been submitted to the UN as evidence in allegations of genocidal intent against Israel's government, allegations Israel rejects and that remain unresolved in international proceedings.

None of this happens in a vacuum, and the source material makes that plain. Fox News reported that Democratic Socialists of America co-chair Megan Romer told The New Yorker's David Remnick that the October 7, 2023 Hamas attack, which killed roughly 1,200 people and took over 200 hostages, was "largely inevitable" given Israeli government policy toward Gaza. Romer said she would have attended a pro-Hamas rally held the day after the massacre.

Zionist Organization of America President Morton Klein told Fox News Digital he agreed October 7 was inevitable, but for different reasons: that Gazans elected Hamas, that Iran and Qatar funded and armed the group, and that UNRWA employed Hamas members as teachers. Klein's comments show the same word, inevitable, used to reach opposite conclusions about who bears responsibility.

Breitbart separately reported that former Rep. Jamaal Bowman's campaign staff were fooled by a parody X account posing as a "Chief Rabbi of Gaza," agreeing to a fundraiser before catching on that the account, run by a satirist, was mocking anti-Zionist rhetoric. A Bowman spokesperson called it a "standard staff response."

Yosef and Ben-Gvir hold no formal authority over Israeli military or settlement policy, and Netanyahu's government has not endorsed either man's statements as official policy. Whether their rhetoric shapes actual troop conduct, settlement expansion, or the Cairo negotiations remains an open question. So far, no government statement from Netanyahu's office addressing Yosef's remarks has been reported.