Former Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert denounces a “concentration camp” project in Gaza

In an interview granted this weekend at Guardianformer Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert has clearly criticized the “humanitarian city” project that his country plans to build in Rafah, southern Gaza. He sees it as a “concentration camp” and warns that forcing the Palestinians to settle there would be an act of ethnic purification.

“It is not to protect them, it is to deport them,” he said, denouncing a strategy which, according to him, already exceeds the threshold of war crimes. Olmert, who was head of government between 2006 and 2009, accused the Netanyahu government of “responsibility in war crimes” in Gaza and in the West Bank, and calls for increased international pressure. He also attacked the far -right ministers of the current coalition, which he describes as “enemies of the interior”. According to him, their violent rhetoric and their support for the settlers responsible for attacks against Palestinians jeopardize the very future of Israel.

While recalling that he had supported the Israeli offensive after October 7, Olmert said he had changed when he found that the government had “publicly and brutally abandoned” any prospect of political solution. He now says he is “shameful and upset” by a war that has lost all moral justification. He also warns that growing global anger towards Israel cannot be explained only by anti -Semitism. According to him, it is the brutality of Israeli actions, exposed to the light on social networks, which feeds this rejection: “Many are not anti -Semitic, they are simply witness to a state that has crossed all the red lines.”