Israeli fighter jets kill 8
members of the Zuqmat family
after bombing their home in
the south of Khan Yunis, in
south Gaza [photo credit:
Hani Sha'ar]
In 2010 then UK Prime
Minister David Cameron
called Gaza an "open
air prison” with its
people living “under
constant attacks.”
The late Israeli scholar
and professor of sociology
at the Hebrew University of
Jerusalem, Baruch Kimmerling
described
Gaza as the largest
concentration camp ever to
exist.
Since the blockade was
imposed in 2006, it is
important also to bear in
mind that Israel has
launched a lengthy campaign
of assaults on Gaza,
targeting not just Gazan
militants but, criminally,
hospitals, mosques and homes
killing civilians, many of
them children.
These assaults, which have
been voluminously documented
by human rights
organisations, include
Operation Summer
Rains and Operation Autumn
Clouds in 2006;
Operation Hot
Winter in 2008;
Operation Cast
Lead in 2008–09;
Operation Returning
Echo in March 2012;
Operation Pillar
of Defence in November
2012; Operation Protective
Edge in 2014;
Operation Black
Belt in November 2019;
Operation Breaking
Dawn in August 2022
and Operation Shield
and Arrow in May 2023.
Between 2007 and 2010, the
Israeli military made precise
calculations regarding
Gaza's daily calorie needs
in order to know the exact
quantity of food to allow
in. Israeli officials told
US diplomats their
aim was to keep Gaza’s
economy ”functioning at the
lowest level possible
consistent with avoiding a
humanitarian catastrophe.”
It should also be
recalled that over the
course of the last 17
years, the inmates of the
largest concentration camp
in history have tried
non-violent methods to
overthrow the Occupation.
In 2018, they launched
the Great
March of Return.
The result was at least
132 Palestinians killed
and more than 13,000
wounded, the vast
majority with
severe injuries including
multiple gunshot wounds.
Despite all this, the
Israelis never got close to
eliminating Hamas, which won
the last war against Israel.
But now it seems, the
Israeli government has
decided to eradicate Hamas
and in doing so inflict a
dire collective punishment
on each and every Gazan.
Water, fuel, food,
electricity and medical
supplies have been cut off
and 1.2 Palestinians have
been told to leave their
homes in northern Gaza and
move south - effectively a
death
march and second
Nakba.
At the same time, Israel
continues to bombard Gaza
with massive and
indiscriminate airstrikes,
killing (at the time of
writing) at least 2800
people, including more than
1000 children. Over one
million Palestinians
have been displaced.
This is the very definition
of collective punishment,
what the online magazine
Jewish Currents calls
“a textbook case of
genocide.”
And while most genocides
are planned in secret, in
this case many senior
Israeli, European and US
officials have publicly
telegraphed their clear
support for these policies
in advance.
On October 9th Israeli
Minister of Defense Yoav
Gallant declared:
“We are imposing a complete
siege on Gaza. No
electricity, no food, no
water, no fuel. Everything
is closed. We are fighting
human animals, and we will
act accordingly.”
Speaking of the people
trapped in the Gaza Strip,
Israeli President Isaac
Herzog said
“it is an entire nation out
there that is
responsible….We will fight
until we break their
backbone.”
“We are fighting a
religious war here. I am
with Israel. Do whatever the
hell you have to do to
defend yourself. Level the
place" said
US Senator Lindsey Graham.
“Finish
them” said Republican
Presidential candidate Nikki
Haley, referring to Hamas.
"They are not militants.
They are not freedom
fighters. They are
terrorists" said
UK PM Rishi Sunak. “There
are no
two sides to these
events”.
“I think that Israel does
have that right” human
rights lawyer and UK
opposition leader Sir Keir
Starmer said
about whether it is
acceptable for Israel to
withhold power and water
from citizens in Gaza.
The institutions exist to
stop Israel’s genocide now
if the political will
exists.
What Israeli and Western
leaders have said and done
is already enough to prosecute
them in the International
Criminal Court (ICC) and ICC
Prosecutor Karim Khan KC confirmed
recently he has jurisdiction
over Rome Statute crimes
committed both by
Palestinians in Israel and
Israelis in Palestine, which
include genocide, war crimes
and crimes against humanity.
On Friday the human rights
organisation DAWN wrote a letter
to Secretary of State
Antony Blinken and Secretary
of Defence Lloyd J. Austin
III reminding them that US
law requires the US to
monitor the weapons and
munitions it provides to
Israel and ensure they are
not used to commit war
crimes. Failure to comply
with end-use monitoring
requirements not only
breaches US laws but also
could expose US officials to
prosecution by the ICC for
aiding and abetting war
crimes, DAWN warned.
DAWN also wrote
to ICC Prosecutor Khan
asking him urgently to
“issue a public statement
reminding the parties to the
conflict of the ongoing
investigation there and send
an investigative team to
Gaza to document and
investigate potential crimes
under the Rome Statute.”
On Saturday the
International Centre of
Justice for Palestinians
(ICJP) - whose Co-Director
is Crispin Blunt MP, former
Chair of the Commons Foreign
Affairs Committee and former
Justice Minister - wrote:
The UK government has
provided military
assistance and economic
and political support. Now
that war crimes have been
carried out, continuation
of such support and
assistance would mean that
UK Government officials
would be complicit in the
commission of war crimes
and potentially crimes
against humanity. This
complicity, formally known
as ‘aiding and abetting’
war crimes, may mean that
UK government officials
are individually
criminally liable for
breaking international
law.
Now is the time for Western
ambassadors, consuls and
other plenipotentiaries of
good conscience who do not
wish to involve themselves
in a genocide to resign
publicly and immediately,
because when this is over no
one can say ‘I did not know'
or 'I was just following
orders.’