Israel: major newspaper publishes ‘Palestine must be obliterated’ article

The Times of Israel published an article on Thursday which readers say called openly for the genocide of the Palestinians. The article was deleted by the newspaper, presumably due to the backlash, but it remains accessible on the Internet Archive.

“In order to make peace and move forward, Palestine must be obliterated,” said the article’s author, Jeffrey Camras. “It [Palestine] is an afront to society, morality, humanity. It represents lies and anti-Semitism, oppression and terror. Nothing more.”

Camras made his call for the obliteration of Palestine while living in Chicago. He describes himself as having “a deep love for the Jewish people and the state of Israel.” He also describes himself as someone who “resides in the diaspora.”

In his article, Camras also advocated for the right of conquest. “How to say this simply. They lost! They don’t get to dictate any terms. What world do we live in that every country throughout history has established its borders and conquered land through war, and we collectively decide we don’t do this any more with Israel in 1948?”

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The right of powers to take possession of territory by force was proscribed after the Second World War. The practice was added to the list of crimes against peace, introduced in the Nuremberg Principles. Drafted in 1947, the principals are a set of guidelines for determining what constitutes a war crime. The document was created by the International Law Commission of the UN to codify the legal principles underlying the Nuremberg trials of Nazi party members following World War Two.

“No one cares about the Palestinians,” claimed Camras. “Care for them solely exists in the form of anti-Israel advocacy, not pro-Palestinian support.” He cited the fact that six million Palestinian refugees still live in refugee camps in surrounding countries to support his claim. He omitted to say that Israel has consistently refused Palestinian refugees to exercise their legitimate right of return to their land following the ethnic cleansing that started in 1948. That is why millions of Palestinians remain stateless. The right of return is a fundamental principal under international law. There are no conditions under which derogation is permitted in the implementation of this basic right.

Following the expulsion of three quarters of the Palestinian population, Israel introduced the discriminatory “Law of Return”. Based on “the right” to undo injustices carried out three thousand years prior to Israel’s creation, it permitted Jews in the Diaspora to “return” while denying Palestinians the same right, even though they were expelled two years prior to the introduction of the so-called Israeli Law of Return.

It was unclear when the article was removed from the Times of Israel website, but according to the version seen by MEMO in the Internet Archive, the entry was posted on Thursday, 18 May, at 3:32pm. This means that the call for the obliteration of Palestine coincided with the hateful Israeli “Flag March” in occupied Jerusalem. The march is condemned internationally because of the provocation and racism of thousands of extremist Israeli settlers rampaging through Palestinian neighbourhoods in the occupied city.

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