Amiram Levin
Amiram Levin in 2017
Native name
עמירם לוין
Born (1946-07-07) July 7, 1946
Lehavot HaBashan, Mandatory Palestine
Allegiance Israel
Years of service1965–1998
RankAluf (major general)
Battles/wars

Amiram Levin (Hebrew: עמירם לוין; born 7 July 1946) is a retired Aluf (Major General) of the Israel Defense Forces.

Military career

Amiram Levin served in Sayeret Matkal and rose to become its commander. He was commander of the IDF Northern Command. He was severely wounded in the Yom Kippur War.[1] Levin served as deputy chief of the Mossad.[2]

Business career

Levin was director and chairman of the National Roads Company of Israel until 2006.[3]

Views and opinions

Levin's views on the Palestinian conflict has varied throught the years.

According to an Al Jazeera documentary, in 2013 Levin stated at an arms industry conference that Israel’s goal in the occupied territories was to create more ‘room to manoeuvre’ by punishing the Palestinians, adding that “You have to understand, most Palestinians were born to die – we just have to help them.”[4][5][6]

A leading figure on the Israeli left and member of the Israeli Labour Party, Levin is considered a liberal icon.[7] After losing out to Avi Gabbay in the Labour party's elections in June 2017, he expressed his support for the winner. He has supported Breaking the Silence, and thinks the army has grown soft because of the occupation. He also believes Palestinians deserve being occupied militarily because they refused to accept the borders set out for two states in the 1947 United Nations Partition Plan. He does not accept the borders existing before the 1967 war, thinks Israel was right to conquer the West Bank ('Judea and Samaria') and is on record as advocating the expansion of Israeli settlements. He has also opined that if Palestinians fail to abide by agreements, Israel should "tear them apart" in a future war and forcibly transfer them to "the other side of the Jordan River",[8][9] i.e. Jordan. Recently he has suggested a loosening of the Gaza blockade, and advocates allowing Palestinians in Gaza the use of an airport and a port, on condition that if rockets continue to be fired against Israel, entire neighbourhoods there should be flattened.[7]

He also espouses the view that the militancy of Palestinian children and youths poses a greater threat to Israel than Hamas, and hasbara (public diplomacy including propaganda) warfare has a key strategic value to counter what he considers is the manipulation of images of Palestinian children resisting the occupation by throwing stones to influence world opinion.[10]

In 2023 however, Levin made headlines for speaking at a protest against proposed judicial reforms. At an interview a day later, he compared Israel to Nazi Germany and said "there is apartheid in Judea and Samaria, the IDF has started being complicit in war crimes, they stand on the sidelines and watch the hilltop youth terrorize the Palestinians and do nothing. The IDF has rotted from the core." He later added "there hasn't been democracy in Judea and Samaria in 57 years. These people (referring to the settlers) do not know what democracy is. They are now rotting the Israeli society from within. These parties (referring to Jewish Power, Religious Zionism, and Noam) now have a majority in Parliament and Netanyahu is responsible for giving them power. He gave the keys to criminals who never served in the IDF, people that in a functioning country would have been behind bars are now in charge of the police." The interviewer then quoted an infamous speech made by former military general Yair Golan who compared Israel to Nazi Germany and asked Levin if he agreed with his statements. "Of course", Levin replied, "walk around Hebron and you will see streets where Palestinians aren't allowed to be in. It hurts to say this but that's the reality. Better to accept it than to ignore that it is happening".[11]

References

  1. ↑ Bibi: The Turbulent Life and Times of Benjamin Netanyahu, Anshel Pfeffer
  2. ↑ IDF Maj. Gen. (ret.) Amiram Levin to Ynet: This is the time to demand international recognition of Israel’s sovereignty over the Golan Heights
  3. ↑ No chairman, directors for National Roads Co.
  4. ↑ Jonathan Cook, “The Lab”: Israel Tests Weapons, Tactics on Captive Palestinian Population,' Washington Report on Middle East Affairs, 12 August 2013, pp 16-17.
  5. ↑ Jonathan Ofir, 'New poll shows 2/3 of Jewish Israelis want death penalty for Palestinian attackers,' Mondoweiss 3 August 2017
  6. ↑ Jonathan Ofir, 'The murder, the error, and the terror (an introduction to Israeli Newspeak),' Mondoweiss 14 April 2016
  7. 1 2 Jonathan Ofir,'Liberal Israeli icon calls to raze Gaza neighborhoods,' Mondoweiss 13 May 2023.
  8. ↑ Raul Wootliff, Labor hopeful says Israel should ‘kick out’ Palestinians in future war,' Times of Israel 13 December 2017
  9. ↑ 'Former IDF General and Key Israeli Labor Party Figure: We Were Too Good in 1967, Palestinians Deserved Occupation,' Haaretz 13 December 2017
  10. ↑ Amiram Levin, 'The Palestinians' Child Soldiers Are Their Most Dangerous Threat,' Haaretz, 24 June 2018: "The hasbara war is war. It requires a strategy and a sustained, effective and powerful offensive."
  11. ↑ Golan, Arya (13 August 2023). "Former IDF commander of the Northern Command: "There is apartheid in Judea and Samaria, the IDF is beginning to be complicit in war crimes. Just like what happened in Germany"". Kan 11 (in Hebrew).
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