Israeli governing party lawmaker: ‘We are not like everyone else,’ laws that apply to others ‘cannot apply to us’

Article By Sahin Demir

A lawmaker from Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s governing Likud party said “we are not like everyone else” and that the laws applying to everyone else “cannot apply to us,” according to Israel’s Channel 13.

Hanoch Milwidsky made the remarks on Wednesday while speaking about the Jewish people’s mission in Israel and their religious identity, according to the broadcaster.

“The land of Israel was given to us because we are supposed to fulfill a mission here. Our mission is to establish a Jewish state here that will be worthy of Jews,” Milwidsky said.

Referring to the biblical phrase “a people that shall dwell alone,” he emphasized what he called “separateness.”

“We are not like everyone else, and therefore all the laws that apply to everyone cannot apply to us,” he said.

Milwidsky also said “the considerations of all kinds of statesmen from around the world should not be relevant to us.”

“We must remain connected here to our sources,” he added.

He said that because the Jewish people are small in number, God gives them great religious figures “like the Rebbe” who can show them the way, adding that they should remain faithful to them rather than to “foreign agendas.”

“The people of Israel are a distinguished people, because they have an obligation to create an exemplary model here in the land of Israel,” he added.

The remarks come amid criticism of policies and statements by figures on Israel’s right and far right that Israeli and international rights groups have characterized as promoting Jewish supremacy over Palestinians.

Israeli rights group B’Tselem has described Israel’s rule over Palestinians as a regime of “Jewish supremacy,” arguing that Israeli policies and practices are designed to advance Jewish rights and control over Palestinians.

Milwidsky previously sparked controversy during a July 2024 Knesset debate over soldiers suspected of sexually abusing a Palestinian detainee at the Sde Teiman detention facility.

Asked whether it was legitimate to sexually abuse a detainee, he responded that “everything is legitimate” when dealing with a person he described as a Hamas member.

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