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The Politics Shed- A Free Text Book for all students of Politics.
Gaza's occupied territories have seen immense death and ruin. Israel's attacks on Gazan Palestinians have resulted in many deaths. Entire families have been lost. Homes in residential areas were destroyed. Vital services were ruined. One point nine million Palestinians, more than ninety percent of Gaza's people, were forced from their homes. This created an enormous humanitarian crisis.
Amnesty International has investigated Israel’s conduct in Gaza and the evidence it has collected and analysed provides a sufficient basis to conclude that Israel is committing genocide in Gaza following 7 October 2023.
Link: Palestine
What Israel has carried out in Gaza is a genocide in real time – one that is being livestreamed, documented, and archived in unprecedented detail. Sniper fire killing Palestinian children. The targetted assassination of jounalists, doctors and aid workers.. The bombing of hospitals and schools. The destruction of universities. Each act has been captured and catalogued.Israeli politicians have made public statements indicating that the campaign’s goal is ethnic cleansing. Human rights groups have meticulously documented these crimes. And a growing number of governments are taking action, from diplomatic rebukes to the imposition of sanctions.
IDF targeting of chldren: Eye witness evidence
The world's leading association of genocide scholars has declared that Israel is committing genocide in Gaza.
A resolution passed by the International Association of Genocide Scholars (IAGS) states that Israel's conduct meets the legal definition as laid out in the UN convention on genocide.
Across a three-page resolution, the IAGS presents a litany of actions undertaken by Israel throughout the 22-month-long war that it recognises as constituting genocide, war crimes and crimes against humanity.
The IAGS is the world's largest professional association of genocide scholars and includes a number of Holocaust experts. Out of its 500 members, 28% took part in the vote and 86% of those who voted supported the resolution.
In a summary of Israeli policies and actions, the declaration notes the widespread attacks on both the personnel and facilities needed for survival, including in the healthcare, aid, and educational sectors.
Among many other elements, it notes the 50,000 children killed or injured by Israel, as highlighted by UN aid organisation Unicef, which impacts the ability of Palestinians in Gaza to survive as a group and regenerate.
The resolution also highlights the support among Israeli leaders for the forced expulsion of all Palestinians from Gaza, alongside Israel's near-total demolition of housing in the territory.
The IAGS notes the statements by Israeli leaders dehumanising Palestinians in Gaza, characterising them all as the enemy, alongside promises to "flatten Gaza" and turn it into "hell".
The Israeli Foreign Ministry said the report was based on "Hamas lies" and poor research, calling it an "embarrassment to the legal profession". A spokesperson added that it was Israel itself which is the victim of genocide.
Israel has regularly denied that its actions in Gaza amount to genocide and says they are justified as a means of self-defence.
The IAGS scholars state that while the 7 October 2023 Hamas attack - in which about 1,200 people were killed and 251 others taken hostage - was itself a crime, Israel's response has not only been directed against Hamas but has targeted Gaza's entire population.
The 1948 UN Genocide Convention, which was adopted following the mass murder of Jews by Nazi Germany, defines genocide as crimes committed "with intent to destroy, in whole or in part, a national, ethnical, racial or religious group".
Out of the International Association of Genocide Scholars’s (IAGS) 500 members, 28% took part in the vote. Of those who voted, 86% supported the resolution. The resolution states that “Israel’s policies and actions in Gaza meet the legal definition of genocide in article II of the United Nations convention for the prevention and punishment of the crime of genocide (1948).”
The resolution said the IAGS recognised that “since the horrific Hamas-led attack of 7 October 2023, which itself constitutes international crimes”, the government of Israel had engaged in systematic and widespread crimes against humanity, war crimes and genocide, including indiscriminate and deliberate attacks against the civilians and civilian infrastructure, including hospitals, homes and commercial buildings, of Gaza.
Melanie O’Brien, the IAGS president and a professor of international law at the University of Western Australia, said the resolution was “a definitive statement from experts in the field of genocide studies that what is going on on the ground in Gaza is genocide”
Why is the world doing nothing?
Why is the world doing nothing?
Geopolitical factors
The enforcement of international law is frequently complicated by the political interests of powerful states.
Differing political stances: Countries are divided in their response to the conflict. The United States and some Western countries have strongly supported Israel's right to defend itself, while many Arab and developing countries have been highly critical of Israel's military operation. With the election of Donald Trump, Israel is assured of US support regardless of its actions.
Role of veto powers: At the UN Security Council, resolutions demanding a ceasefire have been repeatedly blocked by the USA using their veto power, preventing unified action from the body meant to maintain international peace and security.
Selective application of law: Critics argue that powerful nations with strategic interests often avoid holding their allies accountable for potential violations of international law, including atrocity crimes.
Western guilt over the holocaust means that many countries feel unable to criticize Israel and fear being seen as anti-Semitic.
Military and legal challenges
The legal and practical challenges of intervening in a conflict zone, especially with a state like Israel that has a powerful military, are significant.
Defining and proving intent: Legally establishing genocidal intent in a court, such as the ICJ or the International Criminal Court (ICC), is extremely difficult and time-consuming. As the ICC has no standing army to enforce arrest warrants or stop a conflict, it relies on member states to implement its decisions.
International Court of Justice limitations: While South Africa's case at the ICJ has led to provisional measures ordering Israel to prevent genocidal acts, the court has no enforcement mechanism. Its decisions rely on states, and potentially the UN Security Council, to enforce compliance.
Complementarity principle: The ICC can only act if a country is "unwilling or unable" to investigate and prosecute crimes itself. Israel maintains it has the ability to conduct its own investigations, complicating the ICC's ability to act.
Political will and international enforcement
Ultimately, the enforcement of international humanitarian law and the prevention of genocide depend on the collective political will of the international community.
Lack of unified action: Because major powers and international bodies are divided or hesitant, there is no unified political or military action to stop the conflict.
State sovereignty: Intervention in the internal affairs of a sovereign state, even under the pretense of preventing genocide, is often met with resistance due to norms of state sovereignty.
The UN has a poor record when confronting genocide
The UN has a poor record when confronting genocide
The Rwanda Genocide
The Rwanda Genocide
In 1994, more than 800,000 Tutsis and moderate Hutus were slaughtered in Rwanda over 100 days. Sexual violence was systematically used as a weapon of war, with an estimated 250,000 women raped. Hutu militias reportedly released AIDS patients from hospitals to form “rape squads” to infect Tutsi women.
Despite warnings from human rights groups, United Nations staff, and diplomats that genocide was imminent, the world did nothing. UN peacekeepers withdrew. France and Belgium sent troops – not to protect Rwandans, but to evacuate their own nationals. US officials even avoided using the word “genocide”.
It was only in 1998 that US President Bill Clinton issued a formal apology during a visit to Kigali: “We did not act quickly enough after the killing began … We did not immediately call these crimes by their rightful name: genocide.”
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