Beyond doubt, Israel is committing Genocide in Gaza
Why do I insist on calling Israel’s crimes in the Gaza Strip “genocide”?
By Tamir Sorek • Translated by Sol Salbe
Firstly, because I believe it’s the right term and I had used it as a warning even before October 7. The killing of more than ten thousand Palestinians in the 21st century, ie before that date, has drawn nothing more than a shrug of the shoulders among the Jewish-Israeli public.
Before October, the murder of Palestinians had already become a routine occurrence with the full backing of the judicial system and the deafening silence of the “Opposition” and the Hebrew media. Because the political forces that formulate ideological justifications for genocide have already reached key positions in the military and in the political apparatus. Because widespread violence against Israelis, which could justify Israeli revenge on apocalyptic proportions, was a matter of time. One cannot understand the killing of hundreds of thousands of Palestinians in the Gaza Strip over the past 9 months (according to public health experts) without familiarity with the way the ideological-psychological ground was laid down beforehand. The experts’ warnings were sounded back in January, and those who chose to continue the war cannot say that they did not know what the consequences would be.
Those who condition recognition of genocide on the presence of a government resolution calling for the killing of all Palestinians would also have to deny other acts of genocide that have occurred in the world in modern times. It is difficult if not impossible to find documentation of this kind. Moreover, had we now been faced with two hundred thousand Jewish-Israeli victims — whether burnt by fire, died from hunger and thirst, blown up by bombs and shells, or succumbed to an epidemic, I would not even have to justify the choice of terminology to the Israeli public. The denial of the concept has more to do with the identity of the murderers and the murdered than with the absence or existence of evidence and testimonies.
But the truth defence isn’t always sufficient. There are also political considerations — what is the cost/benefit of using a particular term? In the short term, it is important to use the term to mobilise public opinion in the West to get their governments to stop the Israeli killing machine. The long term is also important. It is hard for me to be optimistic today about the future of Palestinians and Israelis, but one thing is clear — if they have a future, it must be based on equality, genuine cooperation, mutual recognition, as well as recognition of injustice.
Any political settlement will require moral buttressing in the form of recognition by the Israeli side of the expulsion and dispossession since 1948, the direct and indirect participation of most of the Jewish-Israeli public in the establishment and maintenance of a longstanding apartheid-like regime, as well as the genocide of 2023–24. The Palestinians should also recognise the crimes they committed during their just struggle against oppression. But, while there is no difference between the personal tragedy of Israelis and Palestinians who lost their family members, as far as they are concerned, the scope of the crimes committed by the Israelis is hundreds of times greater and should be at the centre of the reconciliation process. There are hardly any Israelis today who are willing to recognise the genocide that their country is committing, and that will not happen in the near future. But Israelis have no future without one day recognising this, and the sooner the better.
