Smotrich slams lawmakers for comparing freed hostages to Holocaust survivors, but calls Hamas ‘Nazis’

Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich criticizes his fellow cabinet ministers and other MKs for comparing the condition of the three hostages released on Saturday to that of Holocaust survivors.

“The suffering of our hostages in brutal Hamas captivity is heartbreaking. But comparisons to the Holocaust are a grave mistake and belittle the Holocaust,” says Smotrich, who has however frequently called Hamas “Nazis,” including this evening.

“But for those who still compare Hamas’s treatment of our hostages to the Holocaust today and seek to make us surrender to Hamas because of it, I have a question: Would you sign a deal with Hitler that keeps the Nazis in power and allows them to prepare the next Holocaust?” he continues, saying that this rationale was the basis of his opposition to any deal to end the war which leaves Hamas in power.

“Alongside the importance of returning all the hostages, we have to destroy and wipe off the face of the map Hamas and everyone, and everything, connected to it in the Gaza Strip so that there will not be a single person on earth who would think of kidnapping Jews and treating them this way again,” says the finance minister.

Transportation Minister Miri Regev, meanwhile, denounces the Supreme Court and its new president Justice Isaac Amit, in response to the release of the hostages, and appears to suggest that Israel should treat Palestinian prisoners similar to the way Hamas, who she describes as Nazis, treats Israeli hostages.

“To Justice Isaac Amit and his clique in the Supreme Court who said their doors are open and who deliberate seriously over petitions regarding nutrition, the thickness of the mattress and the amount of bedding for accursed Nukhba terrorists, I suggest connecting to reality, looking at the state of our hostages, and kicking the petitioners down the steps [of the court,” says Regev.

The Supreme Court, in its function as the High Court of Justice, has heard several petitions during the course of the war dealing with the conditions of Palestinian security prisoners, including Hamas terrorists.

Numerous reports emerged of severe abuse of such prisoners at the hands of IDF soldiers in the Sde Teiman detention facility, which has led to two indictments so far and prompted petitions to the High Court demanding the prison be closed down.

The High Court ordered the state to guarantee it was not violating the law in its treatment of Palestinian prisoners but ultimately ruled against the petitioners’ demand to shutter Sde Teiman after a new, improved facility was built at the site.