Former Israeli general accuses Israel of 'war crimes' reminiscent of Nazi Germany in West Bank

The Israeli army is committing crimes that resemble Nazi Germany in the occupied West Bank,  a highly decorated former Israeli general on Sunday.

During an interview with Israel’s public broadcaster Kan Reshet Bet radio, Amiram Levin, the former head of the Israeli army’s Northern Command, said of the occupied territories, “there hasn’t been a democracy there for 57 years, it’s total apartheid.”

“The IDF, which is forced to exert sovereignty there, is rotting from the inside … it’s standing by, looking at the settler rioters and is beginning to be a partner to war crimes … these are deep processes” Levin continued.

However, it was when Levin was asked to elaborate on the “processes” that the former general invoked Nazi Germany.

“It’s hard for us to say it, but it’s the truth. Walk around Hebron, look at the streets. Streets where Arabs are no longer allowed to go on, only Jews. That’s exactly what happened there [in Nazi Germany], in that dark country,” Levin answered.

Far-right rising

Levin’s comments come after he delivered a scathing attack during a speech at a protest against the Israeli government’s judicial overhaul on Israel’s far-right cabinet ministers Itamar Ben-Gvir and Bezalel Smotrich, claiming they were trying to “drag you [Israelis] into war crimes”.

The general, who was also deputy head of Mossad, pointed to their backgrounds, saying as settlers “they do not know democracy”. 

Analysts, human rights groups and international bodies, including those affiliated with the UN, accuse Israel of carrying out systematic apartheid against Palestinians in the illegally occupied West Bank.

The far-right coalition government headed by Benjamin Netanyahu has made Israel's apartheid-like policies more blatant and harder to deny, with extremist ministers inciting violence and discrimination.

Recent months have seen both a rise in settler violence and Israeli state violence against Palestinians, with hundreds of cases of sometimes deadly settler attacks on Palestinian towns.

The Israeli army has recently carried out a host of deadly raids on locations in the occupied West Bank, with more Palestinians killed so far this year than in all of 2022.