Incoming Israeli Lawmakers' Records Include a Nazi Quote, a Psalm Cited Over Gaza, and an Aid Blockade

Provisional results from Israel's election put a cluster of politicians with documented statements on ethnic cleansing, collective punishment, and the starvation of Gaza on course to enter or return to the Knesset, according to reporting compiled by Middle East Eye from Haaretz, Jewish News, and The Jerusalem Post.

Dorfman: the Nazi quote

An aide to Itamar Ben Gvir who served as his chief of staff, Dorfman has a documented history dating to his teenage years. Haaretz quoted him at a 2013 Tel Aviv protest against African asylum seekers, at age 17, saying:

"The only problem with the Nazis is that I was on the losing side."

Footage from his 2013 wedding, described in Middle East Eye's reporting, showed him brandishing knives while guests danced to songs calling for attacks on Palestinians.

Wasserlauf: a psalm, a blockade demand, and a rejection of civilian status

A Kiryat Arba settler, Wasserlauf was recorded invoking Psalm 137, including its passage on seizing infants and smashing them against rocks, in a call meant to motivate soldiers heading into Gaza, Jewish News reported. In an October radio interview, according to Middle East Eye, he called for cutting electricity and water to Palestinian villages that resisted occupation, alongside expelling residents and confiscating their property. In a July 2024 interview he rejected any distinction between Palestinian fighters and civilians in Gaza, a position Middle East Eye notes is widely shared in Israeli political discourse.

Shalev: no Palestinian state

A combat reservist who served in Gaza, Shalev told The Jerusalem Post that a government led by Naftali Bennett would not permit Palestinian statehood. "We're not going to pass Israeli territory to anyone," he said, referring to land Palestinians claim as their own.

Malinovsky: campaigning at the blockade

On 22 October, Malinovsky joined activists physically blocking aid trucks bound for Gaza, according to Middle East Eye, and publicized the action as part of her campaign. She accused the Netanyahu government of delivering food to Palestinian men, women and children rather than starving them.

Kahana: the hypothetical button

In June 2022, Kahana said he would press a hypothetical button to remove Arabs from the country and send them to Switzerland, a remark Middle East Eye characterizes as an expression of support for mass ethnic cleansing, directed at Arab citizens generally rather than Gaza specifically.

Ben-Ari: blaming the children

During an October 2023 parliamentary debate, Ben-Ari blamed Palestinian children for their own suffering and rejected comparisons to Israeli children killed in the same period. A subsequent United Nations inquiry cited her remarks in its examination of rhetoric targeting children in Gaza.

None of the six has disavowed the statements attributed to them in this reporting. If provisional results hold, each would sit in a Knesset now expected to include a working majority sympathetic to annexation and opposed to Palestinian statehood.