Israel honors rabbi who boasted of flattening Gaza, killing ‘tens of thousands’

(LifeSiteNews) — Last week the Israeli government honored an extremist rabbi notorious for demolishing homes in Gaza and urging Israel to “flatten” the Palestinian territory.

The Guardian reported last Tuesday that Rabbi Avraham Zarbiv was among fourteen people selected by the Israeli government to light a torch at the nation’s Independence Day ceremony. This honor was bestowed in recognition of his “extraordinary contribution to society and the state.”

Zarbiv serves as a rabbinical judge in an illegal Jewish settlement in the Israeli-occupied West Bank. An Israeli state ombudsman recently found that he had violated ethical standards by promoting “extremist views,” including calls to flatten Gaza and boasts about destroying civilian homes and the Israeli army’s mass killing of Palestinians.

“Israel, let me tell you, we have crushed them. There are tens of thousands of dead,” Zarbiv celebrated during an interview last year adding, “The dogs and the cats ate them because no one collected them.”

“Tens of thousands of families – they have not a piece of paper, no childhood photo, no IDs, they have nothing. No home, there is nothing. They come, they have no idea where their house is,” he lauded at the time. “It’s something unbelievable.”

The settler rabbi, who served as a bulldozer operator in Gaza, became well known in Israel for posting videos of himself demolishing homes. “We’re here in Beit Hanoun attacking this cursed village until we finish it,” he is seen proclaiming in a clip posted by Israeli human rights organization B’Tselem. “All the way to victory, to settlement. We will not give up until this village is erased.”

Israel has granted a perpetrator of war crimes in Gaza the honor of lighting a ceremonial torch on Independence Day. By choosing Rabbi Avraham Zarbiv to represent “the spirit of the nation,” Israel is making genocide part of its official national ethos.

“There’s nothing for them… pic.twitter.com/PlbWLGQn1U

— B’Tselem בצלם بتسيلم (@btselem) April 21, 2026

In their strong denunciation of their government’s decision to honor Zarbiv, B’Tselem wrote, “Bestowing one of the highest civilian honors in Israel on a citizen who committed war crimes illustrates how deeply the dehumanization of Palestinians has taken root in the Israeli mainstream. It is yet another terrifying signal that genocide has officially become part of the national ethos.”

Anti-Palestinian hate and genocidal malice normative among Israeli leaders, public

In March of last year, LifeSiteNews released a report extensively documenting the genocidal ideology fueled by the heresy of religious Zionism. The extremist teachings of these sects rationalize the expelling or direct killing of the entire Palestinian population by Jews as a supposed fulfillment of biblical prophecy.

READ: Israeli extremist rabbis instruct soldiers heading to Gaza: ‘Kill all their children’

Having subjected most of the Palestinian population (5.4 million) to a brutal military occupation of their internationally recognized territory for over 58 years, this deadly ideology has continued to grow among Jewish Israelis until it successfully secured power as part of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s ruling coalition in late 2022.

Though tens of thousands of Jews and rabbis wholly reject this heresy, the report cites many extremist Zionist rabbis like Zarbiv approving such things as the “indiscriminate killing of civilians,” killing “men, women and children,” wiping out “all of them” (Palestinians) in order to take their land, “do not have mercy on the children. Kill all their children,” “bomb the entire area,” “exterminate the enemy,” block “supplies [and] electricity,” “this is about animals,” “dogs,” the region must be “clean of Arabs” and more.

The article goes on to quote Israeli political leaders who have made similar statements over the years, especially in response to the October 7, 2023, Hamas break-out attack upon southern Israel. Legitimizing the targeting of every civilian in Gaza, including children, some explicitly asserted there are “no innocent civilians in Gaza.” Other comments include, “bomb without distinction!” “these are animals, they have no right to exist,” “erase Gaza. Nothing else will satisfy us,” “we are fighting against animals,” and more.

Naturally, such attitudes have been reflected in public opinion as well with polls, revealing the broader Israeli population is in general agreement with these religious and political leaders in their desire to exterminate Gaza’s population.

And even since the declared “ceasefire” in Gaza last October, reports indicate the Israeli army has routinely violated its terms killing at least 811 Palestinians and wounding 2,278, including, over this last weekend, the murder of a mother pregnant with twins along with her two young children.

The genocide in Gaza is not in the past tense. The blockade, starvation, and killing continue—this is still the present reality. Lord, have mercy.

— Munther Isaac منذر اسحق (@MuntherIsaac) April 26, 2026

Since October 2023 the overall death toll is at least 72,582, including approximately 22,000 children and more than 38,000 women and girls, with researchers concluding these actual totals to be much higher.

B’Tselem concluded its condemnation stating how the Israeli government’s choice of Zarbiv “as an ‘exemplary citizen’ represents a state-level endorsement of the complete de-humanization of Palestinians, systematic destruction of Palestinian life and the governing logic of annihilation and ethnic cleansing in the Gaza Strip and the West Bank. Zarbiv is not ashamed of his actions, neither, clearly is the State of Israel.”

This is Gaza, almost completely destroyed—nearly all civilian structures have been levelled to the ground.

Palestine is the most well-documented genocide in history, yet the most denied.pic.twitter.com/ROBo4ZBVV2

— Suppressed Voices (@supressedvoic) February 24, 2026

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