Nov 2, 2024 4 min read article

Is it really a genocide?

Ashraf Amra / Anadolu via Getty Images

By Beneath The Olive Tree | 2-11-2024

The Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide defines genocide as any of the following acts committed with intent to destroy, in whole or in part, a national, ethnical, racial or religious group, as such:

Killing members of the group;
Causing serious bodily or mental harm to members of the group;
Deliberately inflicting on the group conditions of life calculated to bring about its physical destruction in whole or in part;
Imposing measures intended to prevent births within the group;
Forcibly transferring children of the group to another group

Demonstrating intent is often the most challenging aspect of genocide cases. However, in this instance, the evidence clearly establishes intent beyond doubt. This conclusion is supported by the numerous instances of incitement to genocide perpetrated by the Israeli prime minister, president, various ministers, Knesset members, and IDF soldiers.

Voices of the Experts

In her report, Francesca Albanese, the Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in the Palestinian territories occupied since 1967, released her report on the situation in Gaza, she affirmed that the threshold indicating Israel’s commission of genocide is met.

Raz Segal, a professor of Holocaust and genocide studies at Stockton University, called it a "textbook case" of genocide.

Aryeh Neier, the co-founder of Human Rights Watch who fled the Nazis as a child, said in an interview on CNN that Israel is committing genocide in Gaza.

On October 28th, 2024, South Africa submitted over 750 pages of evidence to the International Court of Justice (ICJ) in The Hague for its genocide case against Israel. The submission outlines Israel’s actions that, according to South Africa, constitute "promoting the destruction of Palestinians living in Gaza, physically killing them with various destructive weapons, denying them access to humanitarian aid, creating life conditions aimed at their physical destruction, and employing starvation as a weapon of war to further Israel’s objectives of depopulating Gaza through mass death and forced displacement of Palestinians."