It’s Genocide

After Hamas militants exited the Gaza ghetto on October 7 and committed an atrocity in Israel that resulted in about 1,200 deaths with around 240 Israelis taken hostage, Israel committed an exponentially worse atrocity: one involving 2.3 million victims across Gaza.

Ultimately, those responsible for what’s taken place in Gaza, the West Bank, and Israel should be tried at The Hague. In the meantime, I believe all of us have an obligation to look at the available evidence from credible sources and speak out about the obvious and unspeakable crimes that continue to be committed by Israel.

Genocide, defined.

Article II of the Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide (CPPCG) – an international treaty adopted by the UN in 1948 – reads this way:

“In the present Convention, genocide means any of the following acts committed with intent to destroy, in whole or in part, a national, ethnical, racial or religious group, as such: (a) Killing members of the group; (b) Causing serious bodily or mental harm to members of the group; (c) Deliberately inflicting on the group conditions of life calculated to bring about its physical destruction in whole or in part; (d) Imposing measures intended to prevent births within the group; (e) Forcibly transferring children of the group to another group.” 

Genocidal destruction.

Since October 7, more than 20,000 people in Gaza have been killed by Israel. A far higher number are believed to be buried under the rubble. Around 70% of Israel’s victims have been children and women. Michael Lynk, who recently served as the UN Special Rapporteur on Human Rights in the Palestinian Territories, said, “The scale of Palestinian deaths in such a short period of time appears to be the highest such civilian casualty rate in the 21st century.”

1.9 million people – more than 80% of Gaza’s population – have been forcibly displaced, with no ability to escape what’s widely known as the “world’s largest open-air prison.” That figure is far more than twice the total from the ethnic cleansing of Palestine by Zionists in 1948 – an atrocity known as the Nakba.

In just over two months, Israel fired more than 29,000 munitions in Gaza. Recently, the US Office of the Director of National Intelligence estimated that as much as 45% of Israel’s firings were unguided.

A New York Times investigation tracked the use of 2,000-pound bombs by Israel on the 25 x 7.5-mile strip that has more human beings per square mile than almost any spot on earth. From the use of satellite imagery to identify craters 40+ feet across (the size associated with one-ton bombs), the Times concluded that Israel deployed well over 200 bombs weighing one ton in Gaza.

On December 30, the Wall Street Journal said, “Nearly 70% of Gaza’s 439,000 homes and about half of its buildings had been damaged or destroyed.” According to the Washington Post, Israel destroyed more buildings far faster than during the 2013-2016 Battle of Aleppo, Syria.

On December 13, the World Health Organization (WHO) said Israeli forces had engaged in 239 attacks on healthcare workers, vehicles, and facilities in Gaza that resulted in 570 deaths. Eight days later, the WHO announced that northern Gaza no longer had a single functional hospital.

Israel claimed that Gaza’s hospitals had been used by Hamas, but none of their evidence could be independently verified because Israel’s apartheid government only permits journalists to attend what the Washington Post called “strictly guided tours” in Gaza. Leo Cans, Head of Mission for Palestine with Doctors Without Borders, said, “What we have been witnessing is a campaign that was planned, it was a plan, definitely, to close down all the hospitals in the north.”

Reporters covering Israel’s attack on the inhabitants of Gaza have faced unprecedented risks. At least 68 media workers have lost their lives since October 7. The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) said the number of journalists killed in Gaza since Israel’s assault began has been “unparalleled” in the CPJ’s history. In a statement, the CPJ said, “More journalists have been killed in the first 10 weeks of the Israel-Gaza war than have ever been killed in a single country over an entire year.”  

With the IDF’s history of killing reporters covering Israeli oppression while wearing vests marked “PRESS” in large, bold letters, some reporters have concluded that vests turn them into targets. Plestia Alaqad, a Palestinian journalist, wrote on Instagram, “I used to always wear my press vest and helmet … but lately I stopped wearing them.” In an accompanying photo caption, she added, “I don’t feel safe in Gaza no matter what … especially when wearing (the) press vest and helmet.”

In a sadistic one-two punch, while engaging in indiscriminate bombing, Israel is weaponizing food by systematically starving Gaza’s children, women, and men. The UN World Food Program said 90% of Gaza’s inhabitants are regularly going without food for a full day. Last week, UN Secretary-General António Guterres told reporters, “Four out of five of the hungriest people anywhere in the world are in Gaza.”

The Integrated Food Security Phase Classification that monitors hunger across the globe said by early February all 2.3 million inhabitants of Gaza could be at “crisis or worse” hunger levels. Calling that designation unprecedented, they added, “This is the highest share of people facing high levels of acute food insecurity that the IPC initiative has ever classified for any given area or country.”

Genocidal intent.

By November 15, an Israeli group that tracks disinformation and hate speech found 18,000 calls in Hebrew on X (formerly Twitter) for Gaza to be “flattened,” “erased,” or “destroyed.” But let’s look at genocidal comments specifically made by Israeli officials.

Two days after the Hamas attack, Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant said, “We are fighting human animals, and we are acting accordingly.” Gallant added, “I have ordered a complete siege on the Gaza Strip. There will be no electricity, no food, no fuel, everything is closed.”

At a press conference, Israeli President Isaac Herzog suggested that collective punishment of Gaza’s full population was justified when he said, “It is an entire nation out there that is responsible. It is not true this rhetoric about civilians not being aware, not involved. It’s absolutely not true.” Under international law, collective punishment is a crime against humanity.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu told Israeli soldiers, “You must remember what Amalek has done to you.” The Israeli strongman was referring to scripture widely viewed as a call for the extermination of their “men and women, children and infants.”

Itamar Ben-Gvir, Israel’s Minister of National Security, said in an interview that supporters of Hamas should be “eliminated.” When Heritage Minister Amichai Eliyahu was asked in a radio interview about dropping an atomic bomb on Gaza, Eliyahu answered, “That’s one of the options.” (That remark apparently caused too much political damage for the apartheid state and the far-right official soon lost his job.)

Giora Eiland, a reservist Major General, wrote, “The State of Israel has no choice but to turn Gaza into a place that is temporarily or permanently impossible to live in. Creating a severe humanitarian crisis in Gaza is a necessary means to achieve the goal. Gaza will become a place where no human being can exist.” 

IDF spokesperson Daniel Hagari said, “While balancing accuracy with the scope of damage, right now we’re focused on what causes maximum damage.” Avi Dichter, the Israeli Agriculture Minister, explicitly referred to a new round of ethnic cleansing when he said in an interview, “We are now rolling out the Gaza Nakba … Gaza Nakba 2023.” Haaretz, the Israeli publication, said, in an apparent reference to Israeli Finance Minister and illegal settler Bezalel Smotrich, “An Israeli cabinet minister called openly for ethnic cleansing in Gaza.”

Yes, it’s genocide.

Israeli officials have made clear their “intent to destroy, in whole or in part, a national, ethnical, racial or religious group” in Gaza. What’s more, Israel has obviously been engaged in “killing members of the group” as well as “causing serious bodily or mental harm to members of the group” and “deliberately inflicting on the group conditions of life calculated to bring about its physical destruction in whole or in part.”

In November, lawyers representing Israel’s victims in Gaza filed a complaint at the International Criminal Court (ICC). In it, they argued that Israel’s actions constitute the crime of genocide. Gilles Devers, a French attorney representing the victims before the ICC, told Al Jazeera, “It is clear for me that there are all the criteria for the crime of genocide.”

“This is not my opinion, it’s the reality of law,” said Devers.

On Friday, South Africa – a nation that knows something about apartheid – instituted proceedings at The Hague’s International Court of Justice (ICJ) against apartheid Israel for committing genocide against the people of Gaza. Download the full document here.

In their demand that the UN’s main judicial organ order an end to Israel’s assault on Gaza’s besieged inhabitants, the ICJ emphasized that Israel was trying to “destroy Palestinians in Gaza.”

What to do.

Hopefully, Israel will finally be held accountable for its crimes against Palestinians and stand trial at The Hague for genocide. But that could take years. And right now, a genocide is underway. Children, women, and men in Gaza are being blown to bits, and Gazans who’ve avoided Israel’s indiscriminate bombing attacks thus far are being starved.

Bill Clinton said his failure to intervene in the Rwandan genocide was one of the biggest regrets of his presidency. At the present time, American munitions and taxpayer dollars are aiding in Israel’s genocidal assault on the people of Gaza. We need to intervene now – before it’s too late.

Call this what it is and speak out against Israel’s genocide in Gaza. Contact your elected officials. Tell them to halt US funding of genocide and demand a permanent cease-fire. Urge journalists to objectively report on this “crime of crimes.” Attend rallies in support of Palestinians. Post on social media about the crime of genocide being committed by Israel. Speak with friends and family about Israel’s illegal, immoral, and yes, un-Jewish acts against innocent children, women, and men for the perceived crime of existing in Gaza while Palestinian. Become involved in groups dedicated to ending Israeli oppression. Donate to credible not-for-profit organizations working to keep Gazans alive. Join the Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctrions (BDS) movement.

Remember, silence only helps the oppressor.

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