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According to Anandolu Agensi [Oct, 12]:

To this day, only one soldier has said he saw babies were beheaded. David Ben Zion of Unit 71, an extremist settler who earlier this year called for “wiping out entire Palestinian villages,” [...]

The claim about the babies has its own separate question here. I want to know in this Q if the info by which AA tries to discredit David Ben Zion namely that he "earlier this year called for 'wiping out entire Palestinian villages'" is true or not.

For the sake of completness, in the meantime, other Israeli soldiers have said (e.g. to Daily Mail, filmed on Oct 14, posted on Oct 16) they personally saw beheaded babies.

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    Noting that people have objected to the premise - that David Ben Zion said he saw babies decapitated. However, there is a whole separate question for this, so I have deleted that from here. Let's focus on whether the same David Ben Zion made the statement about Palestinian villages.
    – Oddthinking ♦
    Oct 15 at 12:57
  • @Oddthinking I think it’s important to link a video of David Ben Zion actually saying what he said, not just to know what he said but also to identify him. twitter.com/i24NEWS_EN/status/1711781404344721828?s=20 Moderators have already deleted two links to the video (a yahoo link under Fizz’s answer to the other question and my whole answer with twitter link here.)
    – DavePhD
    Oct 15 at 13:47
  • Why was this removed from the HNQ?
    – CDR
    Oct 15 at 14:21
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    @DavePhD: It isn't important to link to a video about what he said about babies because that is NOT what this question is about. Identifying him belongs in an answer, not a comment. Your answer was deleted here because it was not addressing the question, as my comment above explains. I don't understand why you are pushing this.
    – Oddthinking ♦
    Oct 15 at 17:02
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    @CDR I removed it. Pretty much any question related to this conflict is something I consider problematic for the HNQ. Many of the topics are disturbing and not appropriate for the HNQ, and the massive attention makes moderation a lot harder. These question also tend to attract a lot of problematic answers and comments from the HNQ if they are left there.
    – Mad Scientist ♦
    Oct 15 at 18:03

2 Answers 2

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Yes.

The radio station Jerusalem 24 reported this in an article on Feb. 27th, 2023:

In a now-deleted tweet, Deputy Chairman of the Settlers Council in the Central West Bank David Ben Zion proclaimed “The village of Huwara should be erased today” and “There is no room for mercy.” enter image description here [A screenshot of David Ben Zion’s now-deleted Tweet.]

(To be clear, this is the same David Ben Zion, as this article confirms.)

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  • Normally, those sources would give me some pause too, because they seem close al-Assad and/or the Hezbollah. But since the Western press mostly swept DBZ under a rug, preferring not to mention him or his involvement at all in this controversy... This is probably as good as it gets. If one wants to [really] quibble, Huwara is a town according to Google, not "villages", but that's probably the least material bit here.
    – Fizz
    Oct 15 at 6:12
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    Jewishpress.com, which is on the opposite side of the political spectrum, also confirmed the quote at the time "Samaria Regional Council Deputy Chief Davidi Ben-Zion said in a bitter staement issued after two Jewish brothers were murdered Sunday in the Palestinian Authority town of Huwara that the town “must be erased.”"
    – Fizz
    Oct 15 at 6:57
  • "The Samaria Regional Council deputy chief added, “The village of Huwara must be erased. This place is a terrorist nest, and the punishment must apply to everyone."" So I guess the "village" designation also came from him, or at least English translations of him in the Jewish Press.
    – Fizz
    Oct 15 at 6:59
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I'm adding this because some of those other sources (in the answer I accepted) are a bit close to al-Assad and Hezbollah.

JewishPress.com, which is on the opposite side of this ethno-political conflict, also confirmed the quote at the time (Feb 26, 2023)

Samaria Regional Council Deputy Chief Davidi Ben-Zion said in a bitter statement issued after two Jewish brothers were murdered Sunday in the Palestinian Authority town of Huwara that the town “must be erased.”"

[...]

The Samaria Regional Council deputy chief added, “The village of Huwara must be erased. This place is a terrorist nest, and the punishment must apply to everyone."

Unless there's a name coincidence and (coincidentally) high face similarity too, this seems to be the same person... although pieces that more extensively quoted from Ben Zion recently, like the BBC (which doesn't quite quote the children decapitated bit though) don't mention that Feb incident.

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