Former Nigerian Minister, Femi Fani-Kayode has reacted to the Israeli Minister of Heritage, Amichai Eliyahi, who suggested that the best way to rid the world of Hamas is by dropping a nuclear bomb on Gaza and wiping out the Palestinian people.
Fani-Kayode in his reaction on Twitter (X) monday said this is indeed a different level of madness which is reflective of monstrous insensitivity that has engulfed the political class and ruling elite of the State of Israel.
The Israeli minister who has been suspended from government meetings “until further notice” on Sunday, by the Prime Minister, Benjamin Netanyahu after his suggestion of dropping a nuclear bomb on Gaza during an interview.
The comments by Heritage Minister Amichay Eliyahu advocating a fierce military response to Hamas’ October 7 surprise attacks even at the cost of the lives of hostages believed to be held in Gaza also drew rebuke from families of the captives.
Eliyahu, an ultranationalist politician part of Netnayahu’s ruling coalition, told Israel’s Kol Barama radio that he wasn’t entirely satisfied with the scale of Israel’s retaliation in the Palestinian territory.
When the interviewer asked whether the Israeli minister advocated dropping “some kind of atomic bomb” on the Gaza Strip “to kill everyone”, Eliyahu replying: “That’s one option”.
The former Nigerian Minister reacted further that the Israeli Minister simply wants to murder two million five hundred thousand people with one nuclear bomb, asking when this madness will stop.
According to him, “The Minister also said that the Palestinian people (and not just those that are members of Hamas) can be deported “to Ireland or to the desert”.
He added that, “This is unacceptable. It is the sort of hateful and racist rhetoric that Hitler’s Nazis indulged in before they killed 6 million Jews.
Fani-Kayode said, “This is a clear case of the hunted becoming the hunter. It is a clear case of the oppressed becoming the oppressor.
“It is a clear case of those that were once subjected to genocide becoming genocidal maniacs themselves and no right-thinking person should encourage them in their madness.
“There is no doubt that what Hamas did on October 7th was barbaric and that they are nothing but savage animals. That is why the entire civilised world, including yours truly, condemned them and called for their total and complete annihilation.
*However there is a distinction between Hamas and the Palestinian people, the majority of whom are not only innocent but also rational and reasonable.
“Exterminating Hamas does not mean that every Palestinian man, woman and child, the majority of whom detest Hamas and many of whom are not Islamist terrorists but moderate Muslims and Christians, should be exterminated alongside the terrorists.
“By all means exterminate Hamas with deadly precision and willfull intent but do not attempt to exterminate the Palestinian people, 50% of whom are below the age of 18 and many of whom never voted for or supported Hamas.
“To those that applaud and seek to rationalise the mass murder, ethnic cleansing and genocide that we are witnessing in Gaza today and that support the inflammatory and insane rhetoric of mad men like Eliyahi, I say the following.
“Sane people do not advocate, celebrate or applaud the slaughter of innocents in the name of fighting a war even when the enemy uses them as human shields.
“Again real warriors do not target and butcher women and children or seek to wipe out an entire race of people in the name of fighting terror. Only cowards, psychopaths do that. You do not fight beast by becoming a beast: only beasts do that”, he concluded.
Meanwhile, the Israeli Prime Minister, Benjamin Netanyahu’s office quickly responded in a statement, describing Eliyahu’s remarks as “disconnected from reality” and adding that Israel was trying to spare “non-combatants” in Gaza.