“If the big lie is repeated again and again and again, that lie becomes accepted as truth,” Netanyahu said.
By United with Israel Staff
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Wednesday rejected what he called a global campaign falsely portraying Israel as a persecutor of minorities, pointing to the country’s Christian community as evidence of Israel’s commitment to religious freedom.
Netanyahu made the remarks alongside his wife, Sara, at a cornerstone-laying ceremony for a memorial honoring fallen members of Israel’s Arabic-speaking Christian community in the Lavi Forest, near the Golani Junction.
“We are facing a global attack against the State of Israel and the Israel Defense Forces,” Netanyahu said. “In this attack, the State of Israel and Israeli soldiers are portrayed not only as perpetrators of war crimes, which is the most absurd thing imaginable to say about the most moral army in the world, but they are also portrayed as persecuting minorities.”
The prime minister contrasted Israel with other countries across the Middle East, describing the Jewish state as “an island of progress, an island of tolerance and an island of security” in a region where minorities have faced persecution and violence.
Netanyahu pointed specifically to Israel’s Christian community, saying Christians have been able to prosper in Israel while Christian populations elsewhere in the region have faced persecution and emigration.
“The State of Israel is the only place in the Middle East where the Christian community flourishes and grows, the only one,” Netanyahu said. “Everywhere else, they are persecuted, they emigrate, or they are slaughtered. Only here do they find their place, a home we all share.”
He also cited Israel’s intervention on behalf of the Druze community in Syria, saying Israeli forces had acted to protect Druze in Sweida from being massacred.
Netanyahu argued that repeated accusations against Israel have gained international traction despite what he described as their falsity.
“The world is being swept along by the big lie,” he said. “If the big lie is repeated again and again and again, that lie becomes accepted as truth.”
The memorial ceremony itself, Netanyahu said, offered a direct rebuttal to accusations that Israel persecutes Christians.
“That is why we came here today, to shatter that lie,” he said.
Netanyahu concluded by highlighting the service and sacrifice of Christian Israelis who have fought to defend the country.
“We do not merely protect Christians, and I am referring specifically to the latest lie. Christians protect us!” Netanyahu said. “All of us, together.”
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