How Israel’s Netanyahu weaponises religion in his war rhetoric

Speaking at a prominent Jewish conference at the Waldorf Astoria Hotel in West Jerusalem in June, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu outlined what he described as a shift in the country’s security doctrine.

He invoked a Hebrew phrase – rooted in an ancient Jewish religious and legal text – translated as “If someone comes to kill you, rise and kill him first”, before putting it more simply in English: “Kill them first.”

With this, Netanyahu indicated that Israel’s security doctrine should be that it takes the initiative before an enemy can strike, very much the impetus for Israel’s strategy in the 1967 war with its Arab neighbours.

Traditional military strategy has generally avoided referring to Israel’s conflicts as being an existential holy war, likely wary of the global criticism such rhetoric could attract.

During International Court of Justice hearings in January 2024, South African lawyer Tembeka Ngcukaitobi highlighted Netanyahu’s command to Israeli troops at the start of the war on Gaza to “remember what Amalek has done to you”.

“This refers to the Biblical command by God to Saul for the retaliatory destruction of an entire group of people,” the lawyer told the court.

Ngcukaitobi concluded that this was evidence of genocidal intent in Gaza , where more than 73,400 Palestinians have been killed since October 2023. Other experts also describe the war as a genocide.

In January 2026, the Arab Organisation for Human Rights UK filed a formal request for the United Kingdom to impose targeted financial and travel sanctions on Netanyahu due to this comment.