CW: This article contains text and images concerning genocide, racism, ethnic cleansing and colonialism.
Asaf Freed (אסף פריד) is one of many Israeli soldiers whose Facebook account I came across whilst reading Bearing Witness – Gaza, a report written by Israeli historian Lee Mordechai. The report declares Mordechai’s agreement that Israel is committing genocide against the people of Palestine, and Mordechai cited Palestinian journalist Younis Tirawi’s own findings about the soldiers as his sources.
Through Tirawi’s Twitter page, I was able to track down Freed’s Facebook account, which mainly consists of family photos, commentary on his deployment in Gaza, genocidal rhetoric, and sometimes a combination of all of them. According to Tirawi, many other IOF/IDF soldiers and political figures have also made genocidal statements that they have acted on.
The first post that struck me was from March 1st, 2024. Freed posted an aerial GIF of Gaza’s ruins, from the escalation of Israel’s offensive in October 2023 to the then-present day. The caption is a reference to the Torah/Old Testament, particularly when God commands King Saul to exterminate the Amalekite people:
15 Samuel said to Saul, “I am the one the Lord sent to anoint you king over his people Israel; so listen now to the message from the Lord. 2 This is what the Lord Almighty says: ‘I will punish the Amalekites for what they did to Israel when they waylaid them as they came up from Egypt. 3 Now go, attack the Amalekites and totally destroy all that belongs to them. Do not spare them; put to death men and women, children and infants, cattle and sheep, camels and donkeys.’”
Given that the aerial image undoubtedly shows resident buildings and plots of agricultural land, Freed is clearly comparing Gaza’s civilian communities to an ancient people that God ordained Saul to exterminate.
In another instance of captioning his posts of Gaza’s ruins with quotes from the Torah, he analogises the destruction of Gaza to that of Sodom and Gomorrah.
However, it’s of paramount importance to acknowledge that Freed’s rhetoric is not representative of the Jewish religion, ethnicity, or community. There are countless Jewish people who would find Freed’s remarks abhorrent, and totally contrary to how they practise their Jewish values. Paloma Faith, Hannah Einbinder, Jonathan Glazer, Joaquin Phoenix, Naomi Klein, Judith Butler, Miriam Margolyes, Hunter Schafer, Jewish Voice for Peace, Naamod UK, Ben Cohen and Jerry Greenfield (co-founders of Ben & Jerry’s) are some examples of Jewish figures/movements who are outspoken against Israel’s oppression of Palestinians, and who would likely abhor Freed carrying out anti-Palestinian violence in the name of Jewish identity.
While some might argue that Freed is only referring to Hamas, another post declares that “We will dress you in concrete and cement – Gaza edition.” On May 14th 2024, he reposted a video (see left picture) showing a refugee camp, and captioned it: “Congratulations. Your Nakba is back.” The Nakba refers the ethnic cleansing of Palestinians, and the term itself can be applied either to the 1948 dispossession of 750,000 Palestinians from their homes by Zionist militia, or the ongoing dispossession since then by Israel. On that post, Freed turned off the comment section.
In another post, he mocks the civilian population of Gaza, claiming that they all deserve to to starve to death, and that a flow of humanitarian aid should follow only after their deaths. This is one example of how, despite Israel claiming that there is an abundance of aid via the US-backed Gaza Humanitarian Foundation and other aid channels, its soldiers want to reduce their identity, their lives – and their deaths – to a time period in which all they should do is receive aid. An additional post shows Israeli excavator trucks flanking a landscape of Gaza’s ruins. His caption reads: “This is what will happen to anyone who raises his hand against the people of Israel.” He claims in another that the IOF/IDF destroyed the Islamic University of Gaza without an intention of targeting Hamas: “And indeed, maybe for the first time, we are hearing that the IDF is destroying targets that are not just military objectives.” Considering that universities hold archival information, libraries, classrooms etc., the fact that he also states that the “destruction of the enemy also means the complete obliteration of their symbols of power and national sites” suggests an erasure of the entire nation, not just a government. He also admits to the IOF/IDF’s “deliberate demolition of mosques, which served as symbolic sites for Hamas.”
And on September 26th, he posted a picture of himself in uniform, claiming that he was in Gaza City, Palestine. In the photo, he holds up a banner showing the Dome of the Rock, a shrine at the Al-Aqsa mosque in Jerusalem, which is culturally significant for the Palestinians. He captioned the post: “The Temple Mount is in our hands!”
If this photo is as recent as it claims, it would prove that the IOF/IDF enables such rhetoric, which would be consistent with their grave human rights abuses that NGOs, governments, scholars, activists, and politicians have regularly documented.
There are likely dozens, if not hundreds of other posts which are similar in their incitement to violence. But it’s also important to recognise that there is still hope for Palestinians. Raising awareness, boycotting, fundraising, and speaking out are all important actions that can highlight the importance of preserving Palestinian identity and heritage.
Links to the University of Southampton’s Palestine Solidarity Network: https://linktr.ee/psn.uos
