Since October 7, the death toll in Palestine, concentrated in the besieged Gaza Strip, has risen above 11,500, with more than half being that of children. Social media feeds have been flooded with pictures and videos disseminated by Gazan journalists, doctors and civilians, hoping to mobilise the international community to put a stop to the atrocities.
But, where is this international assistance?
United Nations resolutions which would have called a ceasefire have been vetoed multiple times, paralysing the body from being able to pause the round-the-clock bombardments. The Israeli government has been allowed to continue to restrict the movement of aid, cut off water, electricity and fuel supplies and bombard homes, hospitals, news buildings, schools, refugee camps, bakeries and fishing boats.
It is a slow, but assured death of Gazans and their city.
“Gaza is becoming a graveyard for children,” warned UN chief Antonio Guterres.
Israel’s narrative, backed up by largely Western media, paints Palestinians as “human animals”, and lends Israel a position to indiscriminately target civilians in the name of wiping out the armed militant group Hamas. Never mind the fact that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu rejected a ceasefire for the release of hostages despite previous claims that he would not call a ceasefire without one.
What is this powerful narrative that concentrates power in the hands of the Israeli government, and creates their immunity on the global stage?
The language that surrounds this conflict has created an audience of sympathy and propels the message the United States and Israel are sending: that Israel has “the right to defend itself” — language that appears to justify the government’s military aggression.
Journalist Motaz Azaiza on Instagram, with the caption “It’s been a MONTH!” [Photo Source: Motaz Azaiza]
In this digital age, where words travel in the matter of seconds, the narrative in which the story is told holds immense power. The party in charge of that narrative can bury the voices of dissent – in this case, Palestinian and international civilians and journalists, foreign governments and rights groups calling for sympathy and a ceasefire. Calls that Israel may be committing genocide, that Palestinians are living under apartheid, and that Israel is committing war crimes, are met with a counter-narrative that paints critics as antisemitic, defending terrorism or even Nazism.
Still, you can say ‘genocide’. Here’s why.
Apartheid in the Israel and the Occupied Palestinian Territory
In a 280-page report, rights group Amnesty International detailed various undertakings by the Israeli government, including extensive seizures of Palestinian land and property, unlawful killings, forcible transfer, drastic movement restrictions, administrative detention and the denial of nationality and citizenship to Palestinians.
It described these as components of a system that amounts to apartheid under international law.
“This system is maintained by violations which Amnesty International found to constitute apartheid as a crime against humanity,” the group said in a statement.
Israeli forces detain a man at the entrance of Jerusalem’s Al-Aqsa Mosque [Photo Source: Menahem Kahana/AFP]
Other rights groups, such as Jewish Israeli rights group B’tselem published their findings a year prior. Regarding their ‘bombshell’ report, B’Tselem said it “carefully weighed its decision to use the hugely emotive phrase” but concluded it was the most accurate terminology to describe Israel’s attitudes and treatment of its citizens in contrast to the Palestinians in the occupied territories.
“We cannot avoid the conclusion that it is a regime that is working to advance and cement the supremacy of one group of people — Jews — over Palestinians,” B’Tselem chief Hagai el-Ad told AFP.
“That is the textbook definition of an apartheid regime,” he added. “I agree that it is a strong word but we are not using it lightly.”
The violence in the region between Palestinians and Israelis is no surprise to readers of the news on a weekly basis. The number of clashes and deaths on both sides have increased astronomically over the years.
The death toll in Israeli-Palestinian conflicts over the last 15 years [Photo Source: Henrik Pettersson and Alex Leeds Matthews]
As the events of October unfolded, powers such as the United States and United Kingdom were swift to voice their unwavering support for Israel. Across the ocean, Israeli leaders would announce a siege on the Gaza Strip, cutting off water, fuel, Internet access, telecommunications and electricity supplies to disadvantage the Palestinians. Early in the conflict, specific imagery began to be formed through the media.
Unverified accounts of Hamas beheading babies struck a familiar chord in our minds, reminiscent of the Islamic State – and was met with uproar as such. Media coverage focused on condemning the savagery of Hamas and their action on October 7 became the norm in interviews with advocates of the Palestinian cause, such as with Mohammed Zomlot and comedian Bassem Yousef.
At the same time, Israeli media propagated footage and interviews of Israelis fleeing from a music festival during the October 7 Hamas attacks, which killed 260 Israeli civilians. Perhaps such events would resonate closer with a ‘first-world’ audience, instead of stories of repeated tragedy surrounding poor and disadvantaged Palestinians one may be unconsciously desensitised to.
While the actions of Hamas which led to the loss of lives is not to be condoned whatsoever, one could not deny a very specific image was being drawn — one that was determinedly making invisible the 75 years of Palestinian struggles of colonisation, massacres, and apartheid.
Bassem Yousef in his viral interview: “You are planting a certain image, with a certain trigger, in people’s minds.” [Photo Source: Piers Morgan Uncensored]
Beneath tensions the world has seen flare over and over again in a deplorable cycle of violence, is a clever and intricate system of suppression Israel has been using to its advantage for years.
Mi Casa es (not) Su Casa
To justify the use of the word ‘apartheid’ without making light of the plight of South Africans in the past, a deeper understanding of Israel’s systematic denigration of Palestinian rights can be achieved.
Since 1948, Israel has indoctrinated inherently discriminatory laws that only recognised the social and economic rights of the Jewish people over any other ethnic group. In 2018, this was enshrined in Israel’s Basic Law, which states that Israel is a “nation state of the Jewish people” and that “The exercise of the right to self-determination in the state of Israel is unique to the Jewish people”. This then removes any legal consideration for Israeli leaders to ensure that rights stated in the Basic Law are extended towards Palestinians.
Infographic detailing Palestinian land loss since 1948 [Photo Source: UN OCHA]
Palestinians have not only been losing their land over time, but are controlled in terms of demography and citizenship. This could be understood in terms of tiers of degrading social and economic rights — the first, belonging to Palestinians that are Israeli citizens, the second, of Palestinians living in annexed east Jerusalem, and finally those of Palestinians in the occupied West Bank and Gaza.
Arab Israeli citizens are allowed citizenship but denied nationality and certain benefits due to being exempted from military service.The state also refuses citizenship or residency status to Palestinians refugees wanting to return to the land after being displaced in the 1947-1949 or 1967 Arab-Israeli wars.
The eastern region of Jerusalem that was annexed in 1967 was formalised as Israeli territory in its Basic Law in 1980, declaring the historic city the capital of Israel despite the United Nations Security Council ruling the law “null and void”. Palestinians in east Jerusalem are given only residency status. Meanwhile, Palestinians in the West Bank and Gaza are essentially ‘stateless’, denied formal boundaries of a Palestinian country, and with that, rights such as the freedom of mobility within the land and overseas.
“It’s like I don’t exist.” — West Bank resident Khalid Yasin’s birth certificate was not enough for Israeli authorities to allow him to cross the border into Jordan, and is unable to legally get married, have a phone line installed, or register his business in his name [Photo Source: Abed al-Qaisi/Al Jazeera]
According to the 2021 Amnesty International report, some 1.9 million Palestinian citizens and permanent residents of Israel live in Israeli territory, with 10 per cent living in ‘mixed cities’ such as Jerusalem. Some 3 million and 2 million Palestinians live in the occupied West Bank and Gaza respectively. 358,800 Palestinian residents were living within the boundaries of the Jerusalem Municipality, comprising 38 per cent of the city’s population.
“Of these, around 150,000 live in areas segregated from the rest of the city by the fence/wall and other military checkpoints,” the report reads. “Some 225,178 Jewish Israeli settlers were also living in East Jerusalem in 13 illegal settlements built by the Israeli authorities and in private homes taken over from Palestinians under discriminatory schemes.”
Palestinians are thus living in mainly enclaves around the region, their population monitored. In fact, the Israeli government has not hidden their emphasis on Palestinian demography control.
“If there is a demographic problem, and there is, it is with the Israeli Arabs who will remain Israeli citizens,” said Netanyahu, then minister of finance, in 2003. His comments received immediate criticism from Arab Knesset members. “If Israel’s Arabs become well integrated and reach 35-40 per cent of the population, there will no longer be a Jewish state but a bi-national one.”
Former Prime Minister between 1992 and 1995, Yitzhak Rabin, said: “The red line for Arabs is 20 per cent of the population; that must not be gone over.” He added: “I want to preserve the Jewish character of the state of Israel.”
Meanwhile, his later successor, Ehud Barak, equated a “Muslim majority” with “destruction of Israel as a Jewish state”.
Former Prime Minister Ariel Sharon, went on to say in a 2002 Knesset debate, that while Palestinian citizens had “rights in the land”, “all rights over the land of Israel are Jewish rights”.
Then vice prime minster, Ehud Olmert, said in 2003, that the unilateral solution to “the demographic issue” is “to maximise the number of Jews; to minimise the number of Palestinians.”
Hence, in line with Amnesty International’s thorough report, Israel has been intentionally controlling, segregating the Palestinian population and as a result, trapping them in economic and social hardship.
The United States and Israel
After outlining Israel’s system of oppression, alleged war crimes, illegal settlements and callousness towards Palestinian lives, why do Israeli officials enjoy such a high level of amnesty from its actions?
The lack of accountability Israel enjoys, or its “get out of jail” free card, is mainly due to the relationship it enjoys with the United States. This relationship further extends to other Western powers such as the United Kingdom, France and Canada.
U.S. President Joe Biden is welcomed by Israeli Prime Minster Benjamin Netanyahu, as he visits Israel amid the ongoing conflict between Israel and Hamas, in Tel Aviv, Israel, October 18. [Photo Source: Reuters/Evelyn Hockstein]
The United States wasn’t always Israel’s best friend – in fact, the US sided against Israel in the 1956 invasion of the Gaza Strip and Egypt.
“Stated commitments to [Israel from American policymakers] cannot erase a legacy of US policies that often represented more of a threat than a support to Israeli security,” Michael Barnett, George Washington University political scientist, wrote.
The change in their relationship came following the Cold War, where the United States then heralded Israel as their linchpin in Middle Eastern geopolitics, which would stave off Soviet Russia’s influence in the region.
It was from then the staunch friendship we know of between Israel and the United States flourished.
“If there weren’t an Israel, we’d have to invent one,” said Joe Biden. “America’s support for Israel’s security is unshakable, period. Period, period.”
The US provides billions of dollars in military support to Israel annually — 3.3 billion USD in 2022 alone — and has blocked UN Security Council resolutions condemning Israel 34 out of 36 times since 1945. In the current conflict, US officials consistently echoed their counterpart’s sentiments: that a ceasefire would only benefit Hamas.
More than 40 casualties following an airstrike on a residential home. [Photo Source: Motaz Azaiza]
“We do not believe that a ceasefire is the right answer right now,” National Security Council spokesman John Kirby said, but added that “pauses” to get aid into Gaza should be considered instead.
The United States can be said to be the only superpower that could ever get a handle on Israel’s bizarre and brutal war strategies, however, even a temporary humanitarian truce is proving tricky as Prime Minister Netanyahu rebuffed his counterpart’s suggestion of a 3-day humanitarian pause in fighting.
Palestinian civil defence training to control a fire after Israeli warplane bombed a house in Tal-Hawa in Gaza city. [Photo Source: Motaz Azaiza] (left) Israel using white phosphorus bombs in Al-Karama neighborhood [Photo Source: Yousef Mema] (right)
“Calls for a ceasefire are calls for Israel to surrender to Hamas, to surrender to terrorism… this will not happen,” he said, vowing Israel will “fight until this battle is won”.
The question then remains, what battle is Israel fighting if it rejects ceasefire deals in exchange for its Israeli hostages kept captive by Hamas, and leads to over 6,000 deaths of women and children? Weeks into the war, it remains unclear how close Israel is to its original goals of eliminating Hamas military targets.
“I challenge [Israel] if it has been able, to this moment, to record any military achievement on the ground other than killing civilians,” the senior Hamas official Ghazi Hamad told Al Jazeera television.
Both Israel and Hamas could be guilty of war crimes, according to the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, for their part in harming civilians as detailed in Article 147 of the Geneva Convention.
“The atrocities perpetrated by Palestinian armed groups on 7 October were heinous, they were war crimes – as is the continued holding of hostages,” Volker Turk said at the Rafah crossing in Egypt on the border with Gaza. A crossing which has seen extremely insufficient emergency aid being allowed to pass into Gaza.
“The collective punishment by Israel of Palestinian civilians is also a war crime, as is unlawful forcible evacuation of civilians,” he added.
The disproportionate “collective punishment” of Palestinian civilians can never be justified, even as Israel claims it only targeted sites of Hamas militants and facilities. These have included airstrikes on apartment buildings, schools, refugee camps, bakeries, fishing boats, hospitals, and more. Israel’s callousness towards civilian and even animal lives is further demonstrated as corridors leading out of northern Gaza, which has been instructed to be evacuated, were bombed as thousands of Palestinians were fleeing in a growing exodus from the battered area.
Infographic detailing Israel’s evacuation orders of north Gaza [Photo Source: Middle East Eye]
Still, airstrikes occur throughout the Strip — “Nowhere in Gaza is safe,” warned the UN humanitarian coordinator for the occupied Palestinian territory.
Genocide
According to Article II of the Geneva Convention, the act of genocide means any of the following acts committed with intent to destroy, in whole or in part, a national, ethnical, racial or religious group, as such:
(a) Killing members of the group;
(b) Causing serious bodily or mental harm to members of the group;
(c) Deliberately inflicting on the group conditions of life calculated to bring about its physical destruction in whole or in part;
(d) Imposing measures intended to prevent births within the group;
(e) Forcibly transferring children of the group to another group.
As the mass deaths in the Strip continue, countries have either accused Israel of outright genocide or avoided using such language.
Newborn babies were placed in bed after being taken off incubators in Gaza’s Al Shifa hospital after its power outage. Three premature babies out of 39 at Al Shifa hospital died on Nov 13. [Photo Source: Reuters]
To condemn Israel of the crime against humanity, one would have to prove Israel’s intent to destroy or ethnically cleanse Gaza of Palestinians. In a signed letter of 880 genocide scholars, Israel is accused of exactly that, and is labelled “at risk” of the crime of genocide.
To demonstrate such intent, one could turn to statements made by Israeli leaders over the years.
Since 2007, the Israeli government has defined the Gaza Strip as a whole as an “enemy entity”. Such language made it possible for Israel to further isolate Gaza, cutting off fuel and other supplies — a now familiar tactic.
On October 7 this year, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said that Gazans would pay an “immense price” for the surprise attack by Hamas fighters, stating Israel would wage a prolonged offensive that would “turn all Hamas hideouts into rubble”.
So far these targets have included hospitals such as Al Ahli baptist hospital and Al Shifa hospital, as well as UNRWA schools sheltering Gazans.
The aftermath of airstrikes on a refugee camp in central Gaza [Photo Source: Motaz Azaiza]
Israel’s President emphasised that the Israeli authorities view the entire Palestinian population of Gaza as responsible for the actions of militant groups: “It is an entire nation out there that is responsible. It is not true this rhetoric about civilians not being aware, not involved. It’s absolutely not true”.
Israeli Minister of Energy and Infrastructure Israel Katz announced that Israel was moving to “a full-scale response” and that it had “removed every restriction” on Israeli forces, as well as stating: “Gaza won’t return to what it was before. We will eliminate everything.”
On 10 October, the head of the Israeli army’s Coordinator of Government Activities in the Territories (COGAT), Maj. Gen. Ghassan Alian, addressed a message directly to Gaza residents: “Human animals must be treated as such. There will be no electricity and no water, there will only be destruction. You wanted hell, you will get hell”.
Images following the aistrike on Al-Ahli Baptist hospital on Oct 17 [Photo Sources: Abdelhakim Abu Riash/Al Jazeera and Dawood Nemer/AFP]
The same day, Israeli army spokesperson Daniel Hagari acknowledged the callous and intentionally destructive nature of Israel’s bombing campaign in Gaza: “The emphasis is on damage and not on accuracy.”
Such malevolent wording demonstrates Israel’s beliefs and attitudes towards Palestinians that has shaped its policies and actions towards them since its inception. Some of Israel’s ultranationalist politicians go above and beyond, with Heritage Minister Amichay Eliyahu stating he was dissatisfied with Israel’s retaliation and advocated for “some kind of atomic bomb” on the Gaza Strip “to kill everyone”. He was later suspended.
Today, Israel has dropped more than 25,000 tonnes of explosives on the Gaza Strip since October 7 – the equivalent of two nuclear bombs. The United States has even warned Israel that the growing humanitarian crisis would undermine support for its military goals. Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan has been especially vocal of Turkey’s stance.
“While we curse the Israeli administration, we do not forget those who openly support these massacres and those who go out of their way to legitimise them,” he said. “We are faced with a genocide.”
A week since the assault began, a UN human rights expert warned today that Palestinians are in grave danger of mass ethnic cleansing and called for the organisation to intensify efforts to mediate a ceasefire. Since then, multiple debates and United Nations resolutions that would halt the hostilities have been impeded due to staunch support from Israel’s allies and their dissatisfaction with the language of the resolutions
Gaza in November 2023 [Photo Source: Motaz Azaiza]
The UN Security Council’s Resolutions
In particular, the United States rejected Brazil’s resolution that would have called a humanitarian truce and condemned violence against all civilians, but was vetoed solely by the United States for its lack of clear language detailing Israel’s right to defend itself. Similarly, an October 16 Russian-led resolution that asked for a humanitarian ceasefire in Gaza and the release of all hostages was voted against by France, Japan, the United Kingdom, and the US, for not naming or condemning Hamas.
Russia’s permanent representative to the UN, Vassily Nebenzia, said the West’s opposition crushed “global hopes” for the UNSC to end violence and stemmed from “selfish and political” interests.
Palestinian Prime Minister Mohammad Shtayyeh broke down in tears during a cabinet meeting as he recounted the story of a mother whose children were buried under the rubble in Gaza. [Photo Source: Sky News]
Meanwhile, Russia and China vetoed a US resolution that was amended to include a humanitarian pause for aid access, after its initial wording that called for Israel’s right to defend itself and demand for Iran to stop exporting arms to militant groups.
“The draft does not reflect the world’s strongest calls for a ceasefire, an end to the fighting, and it does not help resolve the issue,” China’s U.N. Ambassador Zhang Jun told the council after the vote. “At this moment, ceasefire is not just a diplomatic term. It means the life and death of many civilians.”
The term “ceasefire” itself, which would imply a complete cessation of Israeli and Hamas fire, seems unappealing to some, opting for the use of “humanitarian pause” instead.
A cat being rescued from where it was trapped in the rubble. [Photo Source: mohammed_fayq on Instagram]
The inability of world leaders to agree on a resolution that would halt the hostilities in the Gaza Strip due to multiple hang-ups over the language expressed in the resolutions is a shocking reality to contend with — a reality that saw 471 Palestinians killed in the bombing of Al-Ahli Baptist Hospital, a day after Russia’s resolution failed to pass.
The latest Malta-sponsored resolution passed on November 15, in support of “urgent and extended humanitarian pauses and corridors throughout the Gaza Strip” with the United States, Russia and the United Kingdom abstaining from the vote. It is hoped to increase pressure on Israel to deescalate the situation in Gaza.
All states are bound as a matter of law by the principle that genocide is a crime prohibited under international law. In 1982, the General Assembly condemned the massacre of Palestinian civilians in the Sabra and Shatila refugee camps as “an act of genocide”. Ex-prime minister Ariel Sharon along with a few others were found personally responsible for the massacre according to an Israeli commission of inquiry, and led to his resignation as defence minister, although he was elected Prime Minister in 2001.
Language could thus be a factor that helps or hinders action taken by world leaders.
You could say “genocide”, or remain adamant of Israel’s better angels. At the end of the day, it appears before we come to a consensus on the correct terminology, we may only add more lives to atone for afterwards.
The Question of Antisemitism
One may argue that Israel was established as a result of antisemitism itself.
Antisemitism, that is, hostility and prejudice towards Jewish people, is the discriminatory brainchild of social Darwinism – a concept that, hijacking Charles Darwin’s law of natural selection, promoted the idea that certain races were superior over another as early as the late 19th century. It has led to political imperialism and fascism, most notably in Hitler’s Nazi Germany.
Driven out of their homes in Europe during World War II, the clever solution by the powers of the day was to allocate Palestinian land won in the 2nd World War to Jewish people who were in need of a safe haven away from the persecution they faced further north.
The numerous ironies need not be mentioned — Western leaders accusing others of antisemitism for the condemnation of Israel’s actions forget that Western antisemitism was behind the creation of Israel in the first place. As for the most glaring irony, Israeli settlers have been ousting Palestinians from their homes, not soon after being forced to flee from persecution in Europe.
Protestor at a pro-Palestinian demonstration in October 2023 [Photo Source: Jewish Voice for Peace]
This sentiment has been echoed by Jewish advocates against Israel’s zionism, such as by the Jewish Voices for Peace, which recently organised a protest of 500-strong to demand a ceasefire in the US Capitol building.
In a single line, anti-zionism is not antisemitism.
Denouncing zionism is simply condemning a nationalist plague; one that erodes the rights of Palestinians who have occupied the land for centuries, and one that denigrates their existence to that of animals to be controlled.
Should one state mean the erasure of another?
How Important are Political Labels?
Throughout this article, loaded terms like “genocide”, “apartheid” and “antisemitism” have been discussed, but how truly important are these labels in the political sphere?
Why does it matter that these terms are used to describe the ongoing conflict?
As demonstrated, language is a powerful tool when it comes to discourse in international relations. As surmised by a journalist from Al Jazeera, the current situation was a case of “militaries on the ground, media narratives on the air”.
In the same way the words used to describe Hamas caused the world to erupt in strong support for Israel and its “defence” measures, accepting terminology such as “apartheid” and “risk of genocide” would signify a large step towards normalising negative rhetoric towards the Israeli occupation.
Acceptance would also signify a change in Western attitudes towards Israel’s actions — an invaluable and crucial precursor to any international action to rectify the plight of Palestinians instead of repeatedly failing them as we have.
What’s Next for Palestine?
Haaretz, Israel’s leading liberal newspaper, published an editorial on Sunday declaring Hamas’s attack to be “the clear responsibility of one person: Benjamin Netanyahu”.
Israeli protesters gather outside Israel’s Defense Ministry on Saturday for the recovery of Israeli hostages in Gaza. [Photo Source: Gil Cohen-Magen/Getty Images]
The Israeli government’s relentless offensive has left even some of its own citizens disgruntled, with families of Israeli hostages accusing Netanyahu of putting his political agenda before the safety of the Israeli hostages in Gaza.
Palestinians leaving for southern Gaza [Photo Source: Motaz Azaiza]
When the dust hopefully settles in the wake of this cruel humanitarian disaster, will there be a Gaza left? Would a two-state solution be a viable solution if Israel refuses to de-escalate its military operations in Gaza, the West Bank and other Palestinian territories?
What will happen from the river to the sea remains to be seen — but it cannot change if Western leaders cannot say a few words to end the Gazan nightmare.
#CeasefireNow
