[News] Genocidal intent, action and silence

[Anti-Imperialist News]

middleeastmonitor.com
<https://www.middleeastmonitor.com/20240618-genocidal-intent-action-and-silence/>
Genocidal intent, action and silence
by Ramona Wadi <https://www.middleeastmonitor.com/6-author/ramona-wadi/>
June 18, 2024
------------------------------

While international institutions are still debating whether Israel is
committing genocide in Gaza, and Israel’s arms exports reached
<https://www.reuters.com/world/middle-east/israel-defence-exports-hit-record-131-billion-2023-2024-06-17/>
a record $13.1 billion in 2023, a report by *AP* details how the occupation
state is killing “entire Palestinian families”. Genocide is happening and
the international community is so impressed by Israel’s efficiency that
Defence Minister Yoav Gallant described
<https://www.timesofisrael.com/israeli-arms-sales-break-record-for-3rd-year-in-row-reaching-13-billion-in-2023/>
the record arms sales for 2023 as a “certificate of honour”.

That same “certificate of honour” is tied to genocide which, one would
assume, in the Israeli narrative, requires another certificate. The
international community would not hesitate to provide such a pertinent
recommendation, if it were not for the fact that genocide is enshrined as
the worst of all crimes in international law. So far, the international
community cannot commit to such an explicit aberration.

Governments have expressed their support by investing financially in
genocide under the pretext of Israel’s “security and defence”.

Away from the diplomatic circles that normalised genocide and made it
possible, the *AP* report gives tangible evidence of what wiping out an
entire population looks like. As do the 1948 Nakba
<https://www.middleeastmonitor.com/20170515-remembering-the-nakba/>
narratives and research, of course, but the international community has
expended considerable effort to separate Israel from the reality of its
creation which depended on the ethnic cleansing of Palestinian towns and
villages. And besides Palestinians themselves, because their historical
consciousness is lived daily, few take the time to consider that 7 October
and its ongoing aftermath is another part of the Zionist plan to colonise
all of Palestine.

Between October and December 2023, *AP* notes
<https://apnews.com/article/gaza-palestinians-families-israel-war-deaths-a9f8bcfe402c17f1f78903eae67b7a7d>,
60 families were completely wiped out in Gaza; “sometimes four generations
from the same bloodline”. Two other observations from the report are
equally devastating. In some cases, almost no relatives can document the
family death toll due to the numbers of Palestinians from the same family
killed by Israel. In another measure of loss, a Palestinian man, Youssef
Salem, stated
<https://apnews.com/article/gaza-palestinians-families-israel-war-deaths-a9f8bcfe402c17f1f78903eae67b7a7d>
that he “spent months filling in a spreadsheet with their [the family’s]
vital details as news of their deaths was confirmed, to preserve a last
link to the web of relationships he thought would thrive for generations.”

That’s a graphic look at genocide in terms of personal loss and grief, and
yet the international community still does nothing. Despite the stories
behind the devastating Israeli killings in Gaza, despite the visual
evidence of Gaza being almost completely destroyed by Israel’s bombing,
genocide is still debated as if it is a trivial matter. The attitude
mirrors the international community’s treatment of Palestinians as a
population to patronise while depriving them of basic dignity and political
rights.

Palestinians have spoken for decades, but the international community has
attempted to silence them through diplomacy, causing them further loss of
people and land. Israel is now silencing generations of Palestinians by
killing them and the diplomatic silence rings loud and clear, to the point
that the occasional condemnation sounds hollower than ever. The
international community cannot even feign a humanitarian conscience any
more. At this rate, Israel will make sure to eliminate the paradigm along
with the people. Before it is too late, the international community should
ask itself how it is allowing Israel to solve the very real problem of its
settler-colonialism through the genocide of the colonised people. Or was
this what the UN intended all along when it approved the Palestine
partition plan in 1947?

*OPINION: **Does Israel hold all the cards in Gaza?*
<https://www.middleeastmonitor.com/20240618-does-israel-hold-all-the-cards-in-gaza/>

The views expressed in this article belong to the author and do not
necessarily reflect the editorial policy of Middle East Monitor.
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