Israeli Officials Sworn Perform ''Holocaust''
TEMPO.CO, Tel Aviv - A senior Israeli politician sparked widespread controversy after he said Israel would do a "holocaust" of the Palestinian people. Precisely, Matan Vilnai, the deputy defense minister, warned that the Palestinians are firing rockets from Gaza will be punished with a "bigger holocaust" by the Israeli army.
The use of the Hebrew word for the Holocaust, "Shoah", tend to be used exclusively in Israel to describe the persecution of Jews by the Nazis. Palestinian activists describe as long as they had "Shoah" by the hand of Israel.
"If they intensify rocket reaches farther range, they (the Palestinians) will bring upon themselves at a greater Shoah because we will use all our strength to defend ourselves," he said, in an interview with Israel Army Radio.
The Israeli government moved quickly to try to ease the impact of the use of the term was considered to be very sensitive. The Defense Department said that meant Shoah means "catastrophe", not the holocaust. "He did not intend to make reference to the genocide," the Defense Department said in a statement.
The foreign ministry is also involved in trying to downplay linguistic carelessness.
"Deputy Defense Minister Matan Vilnai used the Hebrew phrase that included the term'' Shoah'' in the sense of disaster and not in terms of the Holocaust," said Arye Mekel, a spokesman for Israel's foreign ministry.
But it was not enough to appease the anger of Palestinian militant groups. "We are facing new Nazis who want to kill and burn the Palestinian people," said Sami Abu Zuhri, Hamas spokesman
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