Israel’s nomination of a far-right nationalist with a history of anti-Arab rhetoric to lead Yad Vashem has triggered outrage among Holocaust experts who say his leadership would “disgrace” the revered memorial.

In August, right-wing Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu announced his intention to appoint Effie Eitam as chairman of the iconic Holocaust museum in Jerusalem visited by foreign leaders and hundreds of thousands of tourists annually.

Eitam, respected in Israel for his distinguished military career, led the nationalist religious Mafdal party in the early 2000s. He has recently been working in the private sector.

In 2006, Eitam said that Arab Israelis should be “expelled from the political scene because they represent a fifth column”, a term that refers to a faction within a country collaborating with the nation’s enemies.

While serving as minister of housing and construction, he was a full-throated supporter of expanding Jewish settlements in the occupied West Bank, communities regarded as illegal by most of the international community.

And in 2014, he called for Israel to annex the entire West Bank, while advocating offering Israeli citizenship to Palestinians and expelling those who refused to accept it.

Israeli annexation of the entire West Bank is a position so extreme not even right-wingers in national politics openly support it.