The Auschwitz Museum has reacted with outrage after an Israel official called for the Gaza Strip to be "emptied and levelled" to the point that it resembles the Nazi Germany death camp where millions of Jews were murdered.
Metula Council head David Azoulai told Israel’s 103FM the Strip should be "empty and flattened just like Auschwitz.” He added: “Let it be a museum for all the world to see what Israel can do. Let no one reside in the Gaza Strip for all the world to see, because October 7 was in a way a second Holocaust.”
But posting on X/Twitter, the museum said it was a “sick” and “hateful expression”.
Azoulai also claimed Palestinian Gazans fleeing the fighting should be sent to refugee camps in Lebanon. He added: “The Navy can transport them to the shores of Lebanon, where there are already sufficient refugee camps.
“Then, a security strip should be established from the sea to the Gaza border fence, completely empty, as a reminder of what was once there."
Memory of victims of Auschwitz has, at times, been violated and instrumentalized in various extreme statements.
— Auschwitz Memorial (@AuschwitzMuseum) December 18, 2023
David Azoulai appears to wish to use the symbol of the largest cemetery in the world as some sort of a sick, hateful, pseudo-artistic, symbolic expression.
Calling… https://t.co/ELvU1aOacs
When asked about why the Lebanese authorities, especially the terrorist group Hezbollah, would allow Israeli navy ships to offload millions of Palestinians on its shores, Azoulay argued that "Hezbollah sees what's happening in the south [in the Gaza Strip], and as long as we don't finish the job there – meaning to flatten everything – Hezbollah will say, 'the Israelis are stupid and [can be] restrained.'"
The Auschwitz Museum added: “Memory of victims of Auschwitz has, at times, been violated and instrumentalized in various extreme statements.
"David Azoulai appears to wish to use the symbol of the largest cemetery in the world as some sort of a sick, hateful, pseudo-artistic, symbolic expression.
“Calling for acts that seem to transgress any civil, wartime, moral, and human laws, that may sound as a call for murder of the scale akin to Auschwitz, puts the whole honest world face-to-face with a madness that must be confronted and firmly rejected.
"We do hope that Israeli authorities will react to such shameful abuse, as terrorism can never be a response to terrorism."
