Former Israeli PM says Israel is committing war crimes in Gaza

[muriel_volestrangler]

Former Israeli prime minister Ehud Olmert has written a powerful opinion piece in Israeli newspaper Hareetz, saying Israel is committing war crimes in Gaza and carrying out the “indiscriminate, limitless, cruel and criminal killing” of Palestinian civilians.

Olmert said that over the last year he had publicly rejected accusations of genocide and war crimes being levelled at Israel, arguing that although “excessive killing happened” the Israeli government did not “give orders to hit Gazan civilians indiscriminately”. But he said his view has changed over recent weeks. Olmert, who served as prime minister from 2006 to 2009, wrote in the Hareetz opinion piece:

What we are doing in Gaza now is a war of devastation: indiscriminate, limitless, cruel and criminal killing of civilians.

We’re not doing this due to loss of control in any specific sector, not due to some disproportionate outburst by some soldiers in some unit. Rather, it’s the result of government policy – knowingly, evilly, maliciously, irresponsibly dictated. Yes, Israel is committing war crimes.

First, starving out Gaza. On this issue, the position of senior government figures is public and clear. Yes, we’ve been denying Gazans food, medicine and basic living needs as part of an explicit policy. Netanyahu, typically, is trying to blur the type of orders he’s been giving, in order to evade legal and criminal responsibility in due course.

But some of his lackeys are saying so outright, in public, even with pride: Yes, we will starve out Gaza. Because all Gazans are Hamas, there’s no moral or operational limitation on exterminating them all, over two million people.

https://www.theguardian.com/world/live/2025/may/27/israel-gaza-war-ghf-aid-operations-live-news-updates?CMP=share_btn_url&page=with%3Ablock-683599a58f0862c7f1201311#block-683599a58f0862c7f1201311

Archive link to the full piece: https://archive.ph/I3oda

[malaise]

1. He is correct

Rec

[iemanja]

2. Last night I watched a documentary on the IDF systematically targeting children in Gaza

It is heart breaking.

[Attilatheblond]

9. Heartbreaking AND genocide

Targeting children is not fighting terrorists. It is just assuring the survivors will be angry enough that the world won't run out of terrorists. IDF is self defeating when they target children and food going to children.

[Mossfern]

3. Wow

Good for him.
Hopefully this will have some impact even if it manages only to increase protests - I do hope that it does more though.

[Martin Eden]

4. Ehud Olmert is a Jew-hating anti-semite!

[malaise]

6. Clearly n/t

[IronLionZion]

10. Same with any Israeli Jews who oppose this, apparently.

[iemanja]

12. Funny how you can't be a good Jew if you don't support genocide.

It's a pretty ugly conception of what it means to be part of an ethno-religious group.

[IronLionZion]

13. just like how MAGA are the "real Americans" and the rest of us are fake Americans or whatever

They don't really have a strong argument in favor of what they're doing. They had the world's sympathy and support after Oct 7 attack but then squandered it. Like the US after 9/11.

[Nanjeanne]

5. Full piece from Haaretz- Opinion Enough Is Enough. Israel Is Committing War Crimes

Free link. https://archive.is/N0EFF]

The government of Israel is currently waging a war without purpose, without goals or clear planning and with no chances of success. Never since its establishment has the State of Israel waged such a war. The criminal gang headed by Benjamin Netanyahu has set a precedent without equal in Israel's history in this area, too.

Recent operations in Gaza have nothing to do with legitimate war goals. The government sends our soldiers – and the military obeys – to wander around Gaza City, Jabalya and Khan Yunis neighborhoods in an illegitimate military operation. This is now a private political war. Its immediate result is the transformation of Gaza into a humanitarian disaster area.

The Netanyahu government's choir of thugs and the poison machine it has been operating will immediately decry typical victimization: the Gentiles are antisemites. They hate us. They've always been against us. They support terrorism – while we fight terrorism. In truth, these governments aren't anti-Israeli, they oppose the Israeli government. They believe the government has declared war on the state of Israel and its inhabitants, and it may have caused irreversible damage.

The murder of Tzeela Gez is horrifying. One cannot but feel pain over the fate of this young woman and over the tragedy to which she fell victim on her way to the hospital to give birth to her son. May he survive and grow up in the bosom of his loving family, who will surely protect him. But the statement by head of the Samaria Regional Council, Yossi Dagan, saying that Palestinian villages must be destroyed, is a declaration of genocide. When a Palestinian village burns down, and quite a few already have, they'll tell us that the perpetrators are a small, violent group that does not represent settlers. This is a lie. They are many. The vanguard is always smaller. Behind it are the Yossi Dagans who are inspiring them, helping them to avoid exposure and preparing the next wave of rioters. Where is the police? Where is the military? Where are the tens of thousands of settlers who ought to say that these horrifying hilltop youths are criminals who should be sent to prison rather than wandering around olive orchards belonging to West Bank residents.

The whole opinion piece should be read.

[Pinback]

7. Thousands of Israelis join violent, racist march through Jerusalem's Muslim quarter

May 26th in Jerusalem:
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2025/may/26/thousands-join-israeli-flag-march-through-muslim-quarter-of-old-city-in-jerusalem

Excerpt:

The march has been marred by racism and attacks on Palestinians for years, and is preceded by a campaign of violence in the Old City that in effect shuts down Palestinian majority areas, particularly in the Muslim Quarter.

From before midday on Monday small groups of young Israeli men attacked and harassed shopkeepers and passersby inside the city, spitting at women in hijabs, stealing from cafes, ransacking a bookshop and entering at least one home by force.

“Shut now, or I can’t protect you,” a police officer told cafe owner Raymond Himo, when he protested about teenagers in religious Zionist dress stealing drinks. On Monday, shops had mostly closed by 1pm, hours earlier than in previous years, with residents barricaded in their homes.

Aviv Tatarsky, a researcher with the Ir Amim non-profit that works for an equitable Jerusalem, said: “It deprives people of their economic livelihood, makes them feel unsafe in their surroundings. Symbolically it sends a message: ‘You don’t belong here, we are the ones who own this place.’”

[twodogsbarking]

8. Well, duh. Duh.

[Lonestarblue]

11. Israel under Netanyahu and his right-wing government is now a terrorist nation.

The governments of other countries need to stop all trading with Israel and cut them off from international banking. Economic sanctions may be the only way to stop Bibi’s genocide.