Adalah

y Statements by Israeli Officials and Public Figures Documented as Incitement to Genocide in Gaza
Adalah: We Filed an Appeal with the Israeli State Attorney’s Office Challenging the Refusal to Open Criminal Investigations Against These Individuals
Israel Is Obliged Under International Law to Prevent and Punish Incitement to Genocide

Rabbi Eliyahu Mali: He instructed his students that the rule in Gaza should be “leave no one alive,” including women and infant children.

Journalist David Mizrahi Wertheim: He called for abandoning the principle of proportionality and demanded a “disproportionate” response that would turn the Gaza Strip into a “slaughterhouse.” He also described Palestinians as “human animals.”

Former Knesset Member Moshe Feiglin: He called for turning Gaza into the German city of Dresden, engulfing the Strip in a “firestorm,” “flattening Gaza,” and imposing policies of occupation, displacement, and settlement. He also stated: “Gaza must be flattened and returned to Israeli rule.”

6 August 2026

On 30 July 2026, the human rights organization Adalah submitted an appeal to the Appeals Department of the Israeli State Attorney’s Office, challenging its decision not to open criminal investigations against several Israeli public figures despite their public statements inciting genocide, violence, and racism against Palestinians in the Gaza Strip.

The appeal comes after more than two years of inaction by Israeli law-enforcement authorities, despite the documentation of these statements and Israel’s obligations under international law to prevent and punish incitement to genocide.

The appeal relates to a letter Adalah sent in April 2024 to the Israeli Attorney General and the State Attorney, demanding the opening of criminal investigations against Israeli officials and public figures over statements inciting genocide.

The letter documented more than 40 statements made by 21 senior Israeli officials, including ministers, Knesset members, and public figures. It argued that these statements constituted direct and public incitement to genocide, alongside incitement to violence, racism, and terrorism.

The letter also relied on a database compiled by Law for Palestine, which documented more than 500 incendiary statements by Israeli officials and public figures.

Background

On 12 December 2024, the Office of the Deputy State Attorney for Special Affairs informed Adalah that it had adopted the police position and declined to open a criminal investigation into statements made by Rabbi Eliyahu Mali, who had told his students that the rule in Gaza should be “leave no one alive,” explicitly including women and infant children.

On 4 January 2026, the same office officially informed Adalah of the decision by the Attorney General and the State Attorney not to open criminal investigations into the statements documented in Adalah’s letter.

The response also clarified that, with regard to statements made by former Knesset member Moshe Feiglin, journalist David Mizrahi Wertheim, and Rabbi Eliyahu Mali, the Deputy State Attorney’s Office had determined that they did not warrant the opening of criminal investigations.

In March 2026, the Appeals Department of the State Attorney’s Office explained that Israeli law did not permit an appeal against the decision of the Attorney General and the State Attorney not to open criminal investigations. It did, however, allow challenges to decisions by the Deputy State Attorney concerning the statements of Rabbi Eliyahu Mali, Moshe Feiglin, and David Mizrahi Wertheim.

When Adalah requested access to the materials on which those decisions were based in order to prepare the appeal, the State Attorney’s Office rejected the request in May 2026.

The Appeal

The appeal, submitted by Adalah attorney Muna Haddad, argued that the decision not to open criminal investigations against the above-mentioned individuals was issued in general and summary terms, without identifying the legal basis for the decision or explaining why the statements did not raise sufficient suspicion to justify a criminal investigation.

The appeal maintained that the statements made by the three individuals provided a sufficient legal basis for opening criminal investigations, as they included direct and public calls for genocide, as well as incitement to terrorism, violence, and racism. These statements, Adalah argued, placed a duty on law-enforcement authorities to investigate them.

The appeal addressed several statements that, in Adalah’s view, warranted criminal investigation:

Rabbi Eliyahu Mali — 7 March 2024

He called for adopting the rule of “leave no one alive” in Gaza, stressing that this applied to women, infant children, and the “next generation

He stated“Today he is an infant; tomorrow he will be a fighter

Former Knesset Member Moshe Feiglin

On repeated occasions, he called for turning Gaza into the German city of Dresden, engulfing the Strip in a “firestorm,” “flattening Gaza,” and imposing policies of occupation, displacement, and settlement

On 17 October 2023, he stated

“Gaza must be flattened and returned to Israeli rule

Journalist David Mizrahi Wertheim

He called for abandoning the principle of proportionality and demanded a “disproportionate” response that would turn the Gaza Strip into a “slaughterhouse”

He also described Palestinians as “human animals”

These statements, the appeal argued, incited large-scale violence and reflected rhetoric aimed at dehumanizing Palestinians

Adalah stressed that the refusal of Israeli authorities to open criminal investigations violates Israel’s obligations under international law to prevent and punish the crime of genocide

It noted that Article III of the 1948 Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide criminalizes direct and public incitement to genocide as an autonomous crime in itself, thereby requiring states to intervene at the stage of the statement or incitement itself

The appeal further emphasized that the refusal to investigate explicit calls for genocide also conflicts with the provisional measures ordered by the International Court of Justice in the case of South Africa v. Israel, which required Israel to take all necessary measures to prevent and punish direct and public incitement to genocide

In parallel with this appeal, Adalah intends to submit a request to the Israeli Attorney General and the State Attorney to reconsider their decision not to open criminal investigations into statements made by the remaining officials and public figures addressed in the organization’s April 2024 letter

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