DayofPal-In a deeply provocative social media post, Israeli screenwriter and actor Gil Kopatz unleashed a torrent of incendiary rhetoric, declaring his support for the “extermination of Gazans” and likening the provision of humanitarian aid to Palestinians to “feeding sharks.”
“If you feed sharks, they end up eating you. If you feed Gazans, they end up eating you,” Kopatz wrote in a Facebook post earlier this week. “I am in favour of shark extinction and in favour of exterminating Gazans.”
The post concluded with a chilling sign-off: “Reflections on Holocaust Day 2025.”
The remarks, replete with overt dehumanization and calls for mass violence, were met with widespread condemnation across social and political spheres. Ahmad Tibi, a prominent Palestinian politician and Israeli citizen, denounced Kopatz in unequivocal terms.
“This is how this Jewish individual marks Holocaust Remembrance Day. Gil Kopatch, you are a neo-Nazi degenerate,” Tibi stated on X.
Far from recanting, Kopatz doubled down in a subsequent post, reaffirming his vitriol with even more pointed language.
“I don’t have even one drop of compassion for Gazans. For Arabs in general, yes. For humans in general, yes. For sharks, no. And not for human animals either,” he wrote.
Despite the overtly genocidal rhetoric, Kopatz paradoxically asserted a moral self-conception: “I don’t treat those who grew up in Gaza and have been fed, since childhood, murderous racist hatred towards my family and my brothers and sisters, as human beings,” he claimed. “And to wrap up, it is not genocide, it’s pesticide, and it’s essential to do it.”
Kopatz’s statements have surfaced against the backdrop of mounting concern over increasingly dehumanizing discourse emerging from Israeli officials and public figures since the onset of Israel’s military campaign in Gaza in October 2023.
Critics argue that such language not only fosters impunity but also lays ideological groundwork for atrocities.
At the beginning of the ground offensive, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu invoked the biblical tale of Amalek, a narrative historically associated with divine mandates for annihilation, prompting widespread alarm and accusations of genocidal incitement.
Former Defence Minister Yoav Gallant further stoked outrage by characterizing Palestinians in Gaza as “human animals” while announcing a complete siege on the territory, including the suspension of water, food, and electricity.
Other senior officials have escalated the rhetoric even further, with some proposing the use of nuclear weapons and advocating for the total “erasure” of Gaza from existence.
This climate of inflammatory expression, critics warn, is not merely rhetorical—it is emblematic of a broader descent into systemic dehumanization, with perilous implications for international law and human rights.
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