This statement was issued by the office of the UN Human Rights Commissioner yesterday:
GENEVA (16 November 2023) – Grave violations committed by Israel against Palestinians in the aftermath of 7 October, particularly in Gaza, point to a genocide in the making, UN experts said today. They illustrated evidence of increasing genocidal incitement, overt intent to “destroy the Palestinian people under occupation”, loud calls for a ‘second Nakba' in Gaza and the rest of the occupied Palestinian territory, and the use of powerful weaponry with inherently indiscriminate impacts, resulting in a colossal death toll and destruction of life-sustaining infrastructure.
“Many of us already raised the alarm about the risk of genocide in Gaza,” the experts said. “We are deeply disturbed by the failure of governments to heed our call and to achieve an immediate ceasefire. We are also profoundly concerned about the support of certain governments for Israel's strategy of warfare against the besieged population of Gaza, and the failure of the international system to mobilise to prevent genocide,” they said.
The bombardment and siege of Gaza have reportedly killed over 11,000 people, injured more than 27,000 and displaced 1.6 million persons since 7 October 2023, while thousands are still under the rubble. Of those killed, about 41 per cent are children and 25 percent are women. On average, one child is killed and two are injured every 10 minutes during the war, turning Gaza into a “graveyard for children,” according to the UN Secretary-General. Almost 200 medics, 102 UN staff, 41 journalists, frontline and human rights defenders, have also been killed, while dozens of families over five generations have been wiped out.
Anyone calling for a pause in such a situation is turning a blind eye to the atrocity that is happening, which they are not suggesting should stop.
Do we really need to witness genocide again?
Can anyone pretend that it is not happening?
Will those excusing it be held to account?
I hope so.
Thanks for reading this post.
You can share this post on social media of your choice by clicking these icons:
You can subscribe to this blog's daily email here.
And if you would like to support this blog you can, here:
Hamas killed jewish civilians indiscriminately. They have stated repeatedly their stated intention to to kill every Jew and wipe Israel off the face of the earth. They use their own citizens as a human shield. They do not abide by international law. They do not want a ceasefire. Peace will not be achieved until Israel’s war with Hamas is over and a new regime established. It’s a terrible situation and one can pray Israel do all they can to prevent civilian casualties. But calling for a ceasefire will lead to more atrocities down the line with endless conflict. Hamas run the most oppressive regime on the planet and unless you have an idea how they can be eradicated then there can be no peace. Calling for a ceasefire is futile as Hamas are a terrorist organisation who simply do not want it.
Nothing excuses what Hamas did.
Hamas is a terrorist organisation. I do not dispute that. It’s goals are wrong. I condemn them.
But, Hamas is not the Palestinian people.
And it is not Gaza.
To punish the Palestinian people for Hamas is as wrong as anything Hamas did, and many more are dying.
Indeed, we now face a genocide by starvation or by bombing, by Israel – done deliberately by political choice of a vile, far-right government including those awaiting trial for corruption and those already convicted of terrorism that I do not for a moment confuse with Israeli people, let alone Jews.
Your position is vile, inhumane and, in my opinion, criminal.
It is the equivalent of saying the UK should have obliterated the Bogside in 1972. We didn’t. We contained. We talked, even when we denied doing so. We maintained strong forces at some cost to control terrorism. But we did nit wipe out a population as you suggest – which is as vile a policy as that of Hamas. Instead we let the opportunity for peace develop. It was long, slow work. And it worked.
Don’t tell me there is another way.
And which is better, my way or the genocide you are supporting?
Yep it’s easy to shout for a ceasefire and every sane person on the planet wants peace. Unfortunately Hamas control through repression and force absolutely everything that happens in Gaza. Letting them reground, refund and rearm so they can continue to their stated aim of wiping Israel off the face of the earth just isn’t an option. What is your solution for dealing with Hamas out of interest?
Yep it’s easy to shout for a ceasefire and every sane person on the planet wants peace. Unfortunately Hamas control through repression and force absolutely everything that happens in Gaza. Letting them reground, refund and rearm so they can continue to their stated aim of wiping Israel off the face of the earth just isn’t an option. What is your solution for dealing with Hamas out of interest?
I am astonished I have allowed your vile opinion back here – since it supports genocide.
But very clearly you misunderstood my last copmment
You contain – and there will be a cost – which will now have increased becauise there will be so many more militants
But, ultimtely, you have to educate to show that violence will not solve this issue – which is why the current Israeli strategy is so wrong.
And that way you undermine the population’s support for terorisim and build a transition to peace – as happened in Northern Ireland
What is your option? It woiuld seemn it is genocide. But have you anther plan? Maybe just mass murder suits you?
And oplease do not forget all I said about Hamas: nithign I say here can be ocnstriued as suppoting them the same as nothing I say here is anything but criticism of the current Israeli government – with bith of them responsible for war crimes.
“Ultimtely, you have to educate to show that violence will not solve this issue”
Nice words..good luck educating Hamas
I note you did not reply to my question on your plan.
I presume that you support the genocide that the UN is condemning today in that case.
Two wrongs do not make a right.
Israel cannot argue it both ways – if Hamas is a terrorist organisation then they are not a state. If they are a state, then normal rules of engagement apply, and targeting civilian infrastructure is against international law. This is fast becoming a genocide in Gaza, and continuing to support violence is deeply foolish.
The hatred I can see towards the Palestinian people at the moment from some quarters is quite disgusting. They are human beings, just as much as the poor victims of the original terrorist attacks. Those attacks which have now been completely dwarfed at this stage by the scale of revenge inflicted for them.
Advocating military action in Gaza is a lot like bombing Belfast to get to the IRA. There were plenty of terrorist sympathisers in Belfast, but it would have been utterly insane to bomb a city to try “to get them all.” As if such a thing is even theoretically possible.
Held to account?
Its got to the point that to hear Wes Streeting on R4 Today – wringing his hands – sort of – makes one want to vomit.
Parrotting the Starmer formula to ‘get aid in’ with no attempt to explain how, and yet again no reference to any of the international bodies that are screaming for a stop to the massacring of civilians.
Who is going to bring the case against these killers?
“Who will bring the case?”
Wikipedia:
“On 17 July 1998, the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court was adopted by a vote of 120 to seven, with 21 countries abstaining. The seven countries that voted against the treaty were China, Iraq, Israel, Libya, Qatar, the U.S., and Yemen.
“Israel’s opposition to the treaty stemmed from the inclusion in the list of war crimes “the action of transferring population into occupied territory”.”
“Who will bring the case?”
South Africa has referred Israel to the ICC on charges of War Crimes. We just need a state to refer Israel to the ICJ under the Genocide Convention. That would trigger a vote in the General Assembly.
I think you should look at adding Genocide to your glossary.
I offer what I hope is a helpful illustration: it’s possible that the current conflict will end with the lines of conflict back where they were on 6th October, Hamas weakened but not incapacitated, and 30,000 deaths. That would be about 1.5% of the Palestinian population of Gaza which has been roughly the population growth rate there.
So genocide would be any programme that kills an unwanted ethnic group at greater than their population growth rate.
These are cruel times we seem to be living in, where considering the effects of courses of action we decide upon are just not part of our thought processes anymore.
How many Palestinians is enough?
Israel is just dealing with this in the most clumsy way possible.
And who is going to forget this? What will be Israel’s standing when this over?
The notion that Hamas can be defeated is as naive as the assumption that they could possibly achieve their stated aim of wiping Israel off the face of the Earth. A terrorist group versus a major military power? Come on Hugh! It might be possible to ‘kill Hamas’ at the cost of massacring the whole population of Gaza, but the idea of resistance will not go away and as has happened in other parts of the Middle East, a new even more extreme group would likely be the result. (ISIS?) The Israeli Government’s stated aim is to empty Gaza into the Sinai desert – another Nakba. (Agriculture Minister Avi Dichter).
So both of them are mad, repeating failed policies of violence and hoping it will work. This time.
I don’t support Hamas, or the IDF, both equally vile and both guilty of war crimes. The chant “From the river to the sea, Palestine will be free” is dubbed anti-semitic by Braverman and her ilk, but that simply displays a lack of understanding of the context. Just now, neither Israel nor Palestine are free. Dissenters in Israel (yes, there are plenty) are violently suppressed. Non Jewish citizens are discriminated against. Palestinians are subject to abuse on a daily basis. That was situation before Hamas committed its atrocity and Israel unleashed a genocide in retribution.
The whole area (from the river to the sea) is ruled by an openly fascist government which brooks no opposition from either Muslims, Christians or Jews. The only hope for peace is a single secular state in which citizens of all religions and none have equal rights.
As to how this might be achieved, after so much suffering and outrage on both sides, we can only hope that pressure from the international community, as happened in South Africa, will eventually bring about sanity. Not much hope, when both the US and UK are backing and arming Israel and refusing even to call for a cease fire? But Reagan and Thatcher were also backers of Apartheid South Africa…