Democrats party chairman Yair Golan on Saturday further walked back comments in which he appeared to accuse Israel of killing babies in Gaza “as a hobby,” saying he did not, in fact, believe Israel had done so, but rather was expressing his fear that extremist politicians in the government sought to.
During a Channel 12 interview, Golan, a former deputy IDF chief, was asked whether he believed Israel has killed any babies in Gaza for sport, and replied, “Certainly not.”
“I wasn’t speaking about the military at all. I didn’t say that,” Golan said.
In the Tuesday interview that caused a political firestorm, the retired general told Kan that “Israel is on the way to becoming a pariah state, like South Africa was, if we don’t return to acting like a sane country. A sane country does not fight against civilians, does not kill babies as a hobby, and does not set itself the aim of expelling populations.”
Golan stressed later that same day that he had not been criticizing the army but rather the government, but his statement on Saturday was his most forceful yet.
During his Channel 12 interview, Golan held up a paper with quotes by far-right ministers and politicians who had called at various points to “destroy” and “erase” Gaza.
“I said something simple: that it’s unacceptable that we’re resuming fighting in Gaza, and that the political goals set for the IDF, which unfortunately are not goals connected to Israel’s national security at all… are shaped by people with such a worldview.”
He added: “I don’t recall these people ever being asked to apologize for anything. Is this the Israel we want? I genuinely ask myself that.”
Golan was asked about comments he himself made in October 2023, days after the October 7 attack, when he suggested that all aid to Gaza must be cut off. “We need to tell them, listen, until these [hostages] are released, as far as we care you can starve to death — it’s completely legitimate,” Golan said then.
Confronted with that quote, Golan asserted on Saturday he had not called to starve Gazans but rather to pressure Hamas.
At any rate, he argued, “What may have been the right move on October 13th… as an opening act for war, is not the right step after 20 months of fighting.”
Golan said he believed the latest military escalation in Gaza was “entirely unnecessary” and that the goals of the war were now political. “Speaking as a military man, Hamas, from a military standpoint — by every accepted military standard in the world — has been militarily defeated. What needs to be done now, at this very moment, is something very simple: end the fighting, release all the hostages in one go, and create a governing alternative to Hamas.”
Though long a controversial figure, Golan, 63, emerged as a brief consensus hero in the immediate aftermath of Hamas’s October 7 onslaught, when he headed to the front lines and personally helped rescue partygoers fleeing the attack on the Nova music festival.
This week, however, Defense Minister Israel Katz announced that Golan wouild be permanently barred from reserve duty, wearing a military uniform and entering army bases, calling Golan’s Gaza remarks a “blood libel” that will “serve enemies of Israel to keep persecuting IDF troops around the world,” including pursuing legal action against them. The minister also expressed support for draft legislation that would empower him to strip officers’ ranks over “such statements and conduct.”
Asked to respond on Saturday, Golan said: “Good thing I didn’t ask Katz for permission to put on my uniform on October 7. That day, we did what needed to be done — in a place where the Israeli government completely failed.”
Golan asserted that “the defense minister has no authority to prevent me from entering bases. When I’ll need to enter bases, I’ll show my general’s ID. I assume they’ll let me in. Thirty-eight years of service won’t be discarded because of the cheap populism of someone trying to exploit the situation.”