🤥 Netanyahu’s reference to Amalek was taken out of context.

Netanyahu’s use of Amalek was widely seen as an open call for Israeli soldiers to kill Palestinians in response to Hamas’ attack on October 7. Specifically, Netanyahu urged Israelis, comparing Palestinians to the historic Amalek tribes, to “remember” the prophet Samuel’s instructions to “not spare them; put to death men and women, children and infants, cattle and sheep, camels and donkeys”. That is EXACTLY the context under which it should be viewed.

Of the more than 23,000 verses in the Old Testament, the ones referenced by Netanyahu about the Amaleks was deliberate and inciting, and has a long history of being used by Zionist Jews on the far right to justify killing Palestinians (who they see as modern day Amaleks). There’s not much to decontextualize here.

The implication of Malcolm Shaw’s argument that Netanyahu’s platitudes about the “morality” of the IOF somehow nullifies the significance of invoking a biblical verse that asked the Israelites to indiscriminately annihilate their enemy is ridiculous, particularly given the many genocidal statements from Israeli leaders and the indiscriminate violence and destruction on the ground.