It's Not Just Netanyahu. A Lot of Israelis Want Genocide, Too

Recent polling reveals that the ‘genocide fever’ in Israeli society has reached its logical conclusion: ‘If we can get rid of them all, why not?’

Eighty-two. That’s the percentage of Jewish Israelis who support the ethnic cleansing of Palestinians from Gaza, as revealed in a survey commissioned earlier this year by Pennsylvania State University. Yes, 82%.

In the same survey, 56% support the ethnic cleansing of those Palestinians who live as “citizens” inside Israel, including 66% of those under the age of 40 supporting the idea. That means that of 10 of my neighbors in Haifa, nearly six of them want to see me and my family gone, and eight of them want to see Gaza ethnically cleansed.

At the same time, nearly half of Jewish Israelis (47%) agree that "when conquering an enemy city, the Israel Defense Forces should act as the Israelites did in Jericho under Joshua's command – killing all its inhabitants."

Genocide fever has now reached its logical conclusion: “If we can get rid of all of them, why not?” (To be clear, there have been attempts to downplay the Penn State survey to claim that only 53% support the ethnic cleansing of Gaza, pointing to another poll around the same time. Even still, that’s more than half of Israelis.)

Am I surprised? Absolutely not. Since it’s founding as a state, Israel has always been a society that is based on the dehumanization of Palestinians. As I have said time and again, there is no way that a person can live in the home of another, on the land of another, and destroy the homeland, communities, and lives of others without some deep-rooted dehumanization.

I can see this in the ways in which Israeli news media’s coverage of Israel’s genocide and the official statements of the Israeli government have evolved over time.