Moshe Ya’alon attends a protest for the release of Israelis held hostage in the Gaza Strip and for early elections near the Knesset in Jerusalem, Oct. 28, 2024. (Photo: Arie Leib Abrams/Flash90)
Several retired senior IDF officers have publicly condemned and rejected the recent accusation by former Defense Minister Moshe “Bogie” Ya’alon that Israel is committing “ethnic cleansing” in the Gaza Strip.
“The IDF does not and will not engage in ethnic cleansing in the Gaza Strip,” the senior IDF officers stated in a joint letter. The signatories included Maj.-Gen. (res.) Avi Mizrahi – former head of the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) Central Command and Col. (res.) Tzvika Greenglick.
“These are baseless and disgraceful claims that should never have been uttered, certainly not by a former Chief of Staff,” the IDF officers continued, referring to Ya’alon’s tenure as IDF chief from 2002 to 2005. Several of the signatories served under Ya’alon while he was in charge.
The senior officers strongly backed the IDF as a capable and ethical military force, stating, “We stand firmly by our fellow IDF commanders, trusting in their awareness and dedication to maintaining the purity of their mission and arms.”
The joint letter ended with the message: “We have no other country and no other army,” with the officers expressing their disappointment with Ya’alon’s criticism of the Israeli military.
They maintained that the Israeli military makes significant efforts to minimize civilian casualties, while facing adversaries who, for propaganda purposes, seek to increase civilian suffering on both sides.
During an interview with the prominent Arab Israeli journalist Lucy Aharish on DemocratTV, Ya’alon argued that the policies of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s government will lead Israel toward becoming an “apartheid state.”
Ya’alon asked, “Who is in favor of partition? In favor of partition, rather than a dual national state, an apartheid state, or to follow the path that we are now being dragged towards?”
“To conquer, to annex, to commit ethnic cleansing,” he continued. “Look at the northern [Gaza] Strip,” he continued, “transfer, call it whatever you want, to establish Jewish settlements. This is the issue.”
Ya’alon said that two-thirds of Israel prefers partitioning the land, with Jews and Arab-Palestinians living in separate states. He accused Netanyahu of misleading the people, saying, he is “the one who is leading us to no less than total destruction.”
His statement was a play on Netanyahu’s slogan of “total victory,” which he used to rally his political supporters during the war.
When asked by journalist Lucy Aharish to clarify, “On the way to ethnic cleansing in the Gaza Strip?” Ya’alon responded, “Why on the way? What’s going on there right now? What is happening there? There is no Beit Lahia, there is no Beit Hanoun, [IDF] are currently operating in Jabaliya and are essentially cleansing the area of Arabs.”