«Silence is not neutrality»: Palestinian Community Calls on Government to Condemn Israeli Minister’s Remarks Advocating for Nightly Killings in Gaza

Original article: “El silencio no es neutralidad”: Comunidad Palestina exige al Gobierno condenar dichos de ministro israelí sobre “matar entre 30 y 40 personas cada noche en Gaza”

Under the premise that «silence is not neutrality», the Palestinian Community of Chile demanded that the government of José Antonio Kast condemn the recent statements by Israeli National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir, who proposed «killing between 30 and 40 people each night in Gaza«.

«I believe that targeted assassinations should be conducted in Gaza, eliminating between 30 and 40 people each night. Not just those who pose an immediate threat; there are people there who do not deserve to live. They should not live. They are not even people,» stated the official of the Zionist regime during a podcast broadcast on Sunday, August 16.

Such statements, which have been presented in international courts as evidence of a «genocidal intent», reflect the hardline stance of a political figure who, in his role, controls the Israeli police and the prisons where numerous cases of torture against Palestinian detainees have been reported.

Ben Gvir, who is the leading advocate for the death penalty for Palestinians, confirmed that he does not support reducing attacks on Gaza.

«I believe that all of Gaza is ours»

The minister, a settler from occupied West Bank, has advanced his political career by adopting an ultra-nationalist and anti-Arab stance. He constantly boasts about the violation of the rights of Palestinians who are citizens of Israel and those detainees from the West Bank and Gaza in Israeli prisons.

Moreover, Ben Gvir, who did not complete his military service due to his ties to the extremist Kach movement, designated as a terrorist organization in Israel, advocated for the «mass migration of Palestinians» in Gaza to colonize the enclave with Jewish settlements, a proposal that has been labeled by international bodies as an attempt at «ethnic cleansing.»

«I believe that all of Gaza is ours (…) We should have settlements not only in Gush Katif (the Israeli settlement in the Strip dismantled in 2005) but across all of Gaza, encouraging maximum emigration, sending them back to their countries of origin, and for the terrorists, no emigration, nothing, just kill them one by one,» he declared in the podcast, according to the EFE agency.

Palestinian Community Demands Government Condemn Israeli Minister’s Statements

In response to the severity of these remarks, the president of the Palestinian Community of Chile, Maurice Khamis Massú, expressed the strongest condemnation from the organization.

«When such words come from a state authority responsible for security, they represent a blatant threat to life and seek to normalize death and criminal violence,» he stated in a press release.

He warned that this hate speech not only impacts those resisting Zionist aggression in the occupied land; it also directly affects the diaspora, especially the nearly 500,000 people of Palestinian descent living in Chile, undermining our history, identity, and family ties.

The Palestinian Community of Chile emphasized that this dehumanization has concrete consequences that extend beyond the borders of Gaza into the West Bank. According to the statement, these are not isolated episodes but part of a systematic pattern of violence, intimidation, and territorial control designed to suffocate the entire Palestinian people. In historic locations such as Taybeh—predominantly Christian—Bethlehem, Beit Jala, and Beit Sahour, the relentless advance of settlements, attacks on homes, and the presence of Israeli police threaten the continuity of communities and aim to fragment the territory.

«In the face of dehumanization, silence is not neutrality»

«We are not witnessing isolated episodes or a problem affecting only a specific community, but rather a systematic pattern of violence, intimidation, and territorial control designed to suffocate and displace the entire Palestinian people. The advance of settlements seeks to fragment the territory to permanently bury the viability of a Palestinian state and consolidate a de facto annexation over the occupied land,” Khamis pointed out.

In the statement, representing the Palestinian community in the country, they directly called on the authorities of Kast’s administration to take a clear stance against the hate speech and the Israeli minister’s remarks.

«We make a categorical call to the Chilean government and its Ministry of Foreign Affairs to firmly address these grave statements and the illegal expansion of settlements. In the face of dehumanization, silence is not neutrality. Chile must act consistently with its historical defense of human rights and international law, demanding respect for the Palestinian people’s right to live with freedom, dignity, and security in their own land,” they asserted.