Besides the answer yes is Israel committing genocide ?
The ongoing devastation of Gaza, now in its 11th month, has resulted in unparalleled loss of life, infrastructure, and habitats, and seems unstoppable.
Neither actual US pressure to reduce civilian losses nor the rhetoric of Arab states, which could not reach consensus on combined steps such as an oil embargo or the temporary suspension of formal diplomatic relations, has succeeded in halting or even moderating Israel's brutal attack on Gaza. United Nations resolutions and widespread global demonstrations have also demonstrated ineffectiveness.
Unbelievable as it may sound, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and US President Joe Biden appear to control the fate of millions of Palestinians.
Israel has announced that its genocidal campaign will extend for several more months, potentially without more truce periods. Rather than de-escalating the offensive or significantly reducing civilian casualties, as advocated by the US—not so much out of concern for Palestinian lives, but primarily due to concerns over a potential regional conflict and the damage on international support for Washington and Tel Aviv—Israel has instead intensified its assaults following the brief truce in November.
There is no doubt that Israel has already perpetrated multiple war crimes. This is unsurprising for a state that has, for decades, fostered that practice—especially when one remembers that Israel was established through ethnic cleansing.
War crimes, discrimination against non-Jews, and disdain for international law have been integral to Israel's identity since its establishment in 1948, and even prior, if one remembers the actions of Zionist paramilitary groups like Irgun and Haganah. However, there is currently a discussion regarding whether Israel's actions constitute genocide in the legal sense of the term.
There are many common misconceptions about the definition of genocide, the main one being that it requires crimes to match the scale and severity of the Holocaust or lead to the near-total annihilation of a people or group to qualify as such. This is incorrect.
According to Article II of the Genocide Convention, genocide means any of the following acts committed with intent to destroy, in whole or in part, a national, ethnic, racial, or religious group: killing members of the group; causing them serious bodily or mental harm; deliberately inflicting conditions of life aiming to bring about the group’s destruction; imposing measures intended to prevent births; or forcibly transferring children to another group.
Israel's actions in Gaza, along with their devastating effects on the civilian population and the recurrent statements from Israeli officials indicating a clear intent to wipe out or significantly harm as many Palestinians as possible, clearly demonstrate that they have not only reached but exceeded the threshold. A multitude of authorities, journalists, and civil society activists have publicly designated this as genocide.
A consensus appears to be forming among academics, legal scholars, and even former International Criminal Court prosecutors, who can undoubtedly identify genocide as it occurs.
History has shown us that there are numerous methods for exterminating a group and depleting a population. Israel's genocide campaign, which has persisted since 1948, is characterized by a number of features: its permanence, the variation between "slow-motion" genocide and episodes of brutal slaughter, and the rich array of mass death techniques.
At present, Israel is systematically and methodically combining all those methods of death, yielding horrendous outcomes. The state's response to Hamas' retaliatory attack on 7 October may identify at least 8 genocidal methods.
Israel seems to have seized on this opportunity to escalate its slow-motion genocide to an unprecedented level of savagery.
The eight methods of genocide:
1. Kill them: Bomb Palestinians indiscriminately. Despite Israel's false claims of implementing measures to protect civilians, the reality on the ground shows otherwise, as civilians constitute the vast majority of those killed. Israel deliberately and directly targeted schools, hospitals, and homes.
2. Starve them: Blockades of food and water supplies accomplish this. This is not a novel occurrence; it has long been an integral aspect of a systematic Israeli policy aimed at depriving Palestinians of vital life-sustaining resources, particularly water.
3. Deny them medical care: Israel is increasing the casualty count by obliterating medical facilities, especially hospitals, so guaranteeing that people who may have been rescued would ultimately succumb to untreated injuries.
4. Spread disease: The deterioration of medical infrastructure, along with dire living conditions, has ensured disease proliferation, endangering another substantial wave of deaths.
5. Exhaust them through forced evictions: Israel is employing forced relocations, first from northern Gaza to the south and subsequently inside the southern region, compelling fatigued, sick, starved, elderly, and frequently injured people to go from one supposedly “secure area” to another, which Israel afterwards targets with bombardments. A grid map published by Israel has segmented southern Gaza into numerous small parcels, compelling people to relocate on short notice to evade bombings.
6. Devastate their environment: The situation in Gaza is a genuine ecocide. The extent of environmental destruction, encompassing persistent pollution and military ammunition, is substantial and may impact future generations.
7. Atomize their society: The systematic dismantling of governmental, administrative, and educational frameworks under the guise of combating Hamas has destabilized Palestinian society. By displacing the majority of Gaza’s 2.3 million inhabitants, Israel is disrupting their social connections; it remains uncertain how they will reconstruct a society in the future, particularly as Israel has sought to associate all civilians with Hamas and aims to retain control over the territory and its resources for the foreseeable future.
8. Break their spirit: For decades, Israel has employed psychological warfare to instill a sense of hopelessness and despair within the native Palestinian populace. This has been profoundly impactful on the most vulnerable: Gaza’s children, many of whom experienced severe depression, PTSD, and suicidal thoughts even prior to the current genocide. Because Israel significantly hinders their access to treatment, the majority will endure prolonged trauma.
The aforementioned 8 methods constitute various forms of collective punishment, with repercussions likely to last for at least one generation, even if the genocide were to stop today.