Speaking at a prominent Jewish conference at the Waldorf Astoria Hotel in West Jerusalem in June, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu outlined what he described as a shift in the country’s security doctrine. He invoked a Hebrew phrase – rooted in an ancient Jewish religious and legal text – translated as “If someone comes to kill you, rise and kill him first”, before putting it more simply in English: “Kill them first.” With this, Netanyahu indicated that Israel’s security doctrine should be that it takes the initiative before an enemy can strike, very much the impetus for Israel’s strategy in the 1967 war with its Arab neighbours. Traditional military strategy has generally avoided referring to Israel’s conflicts as being an existential holy war, likely wary of the global criticism such rhetoric could attract.
During International Court of Justice hearings in January 2024, South African lawyer Tembeka Ngcukaitobi highlighted Netanyahu’s command to Israeli troops at the start of the war on Gaza to “remember what Amalek has done to you”. Ngcukaitobi concluded that this was evidence of genocidal intent in Gaza, where more than 73,400 Palestinians have been killed since October 2023. Other experts also describe the war as a genocide.
In January 2026, the Arab Organisation for Human Rights UK filed a formal request for the United Kingdom to impose targeted financial and travel sanctions on Netanyahu due to this comment. Other Israeli leaders and commanders have used similar language to demonise Palestinians and dictate military actions. When former Defence Minister Yoav Gallant announced a complete siege on Gaza – including power, food and fuel – he said Israel was fighting “human animals“.
While not explicitly a religious reference, it is indicative of the dehumanising language used by Israeli leaders against Palestinians. Jewish religious figures have in the past issued edicts to the military. In 2004, Avraham Shapira, a leading rabbi, warned soldiers that dismantling illegal settlements in the West Bank and Gaza was a major sin akin to eating pork.
Since the 1948 Nakba – when 750,000 Palestinians were ethnically cleansed from their homes during the formation of the Israeli state – the country’s leaders have also used religious discourse during times of war. Despite being a “secular Zionist”, Israel’s first prime minister, David Ben-Gurion, actually used more biblical and rabbinic references in his wartime speeches than Netanyahu has done, according to a 2025 Jewish People Policy Institute (JPPI) study. Israelis have also used the Bible as a justification for their occupation of the West Bank and East Jerusalem.
Far-right Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich is among the many Israeli politicians who believe settlers are biblically entitled to the occupied West Bank, which they refer to by the biblical name of Judea and Samaria. The Israeli government has recently allocated unprecedented funds within a $271bn budget to entrench the occupation of the West Bank, where approximately 700,000 settlers now live. This comes amid a surge of violence against Palestinians in the occupied West Bank, with more than 3,700 attacks on Palestinians there over the past two years.
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