Anat Sultan Dodan, the Consulate General of Israel to the Southeast, joined WDUN’s The Martha Zoller Show Friday morning to speak about the ongoing war between Israel and Hamas.
The AP reports more than 1,400 people have been killed in Israel and nearly 240 hostages were taken from Israel into Gaza after the attacks on Oct. 7.
“Oct. 7 changed Israel … We slowly started to watch what became the greatest massacre of Jews in a single day since the Holocaust,” Dodan said. “That is something that has shaken us to our core as Israelis, but also felt deeply by our brothers and sisters in Jewish communities around the world.”
Antisemitism has risen 388% since the initial attacks, the Anti-Defamation League reports.
“We are seeing not only a global rise in anti-Semitism, but we're seeing it here in the United States as well. We are seeing it here in the state of Georgia, in Atlanta. We are seeing public demonstrations that are proudly and publicly calling for what is the annihilation of the State of Israel and the Jewish people,” Dodan said.
Hamas was formed in 1980 and has ruled the Gaza Strip since 2006.
“I think that rather than call for a free Palestine, for those who truly care about the Palestinian people in the Gaza Strip, they should be joining us in the call to free Gaza from Hamas,” Dodan said. “Because Hamas is intentionally harming their civilians, intentionally placing them in harm's way.”
Dodan discussed what she believed Israel must do to end the war.
“We are focused on ensuring that Hamas will no longer rule the Gaza Strip. And we are focused on bringing home our 239 hostages who were brutally abducted and taken into the Gaza Strip,” Dodan said. “We will not tolerate Hamas and any other terror elements in the Gaza Strip having capabilities to attack Israel.”
Dodan said the Jewish Community has endured death and destruction for many years.
“Nov. 9, we marked 85 years since Kristallnacht. The night of the shattered glass in the German Reich in 1938,” Dodan said. “Which was, in many ways, the first step towards what became the systematic annihilation of 6 million of our people.”
According to the Health Ministry in Gaza, nearly 11,000 Palestinians have been killed as a result of Israel's response to Hamas' attacks.
Atlanta News First reports a pro-Palestinian rally was held at the Consulate General of Israel in Midtown Atlanta Thursday night organized by the Party for Socialism and Liberation and the Atlanta chapter of the Palestinian Youth Movement. Those in attendance called for a ceasefire and an end to U.S. financial support for Israel.
