Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s recent appointment of Avigdor Lieberman to the Ministry of Defence is nothing short of a declaration of war. Lieberman, the leader of the right-wing party, Yisrael Beitenu (Hebrew for ‘Israel is Our Home’), is an unabashed colonist who resides illegally in a colony in the Bethlehem area. Despite hailing from Moldova and having immigrated to Palestine, Lieberman has made, as part of his party’s platform, a condition that Palestinians in Israel should be ethnically cleansed from their homeland. He advocates that Palestinians, who witnessed the destruction of their homeland, who saw their families dispossessed and turned into refugees and who live as second-class citizens in their homeland while foreign invaders are granted superior rights, must be “loyal” to the state that actively seeks their demise or face having their citizenship stripped. And it does not stop there: Lieberman is now seeking passage of a bill to institute the death penalty against Palestinians who resist Israel’s military rule.

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