Following is the text of an email newsletter I sent exclusively to my subscribers on November 15, 2023. At a reader’s request, I am now publishing it so that it might be shared.
The horrific situation on the ground in Gaza keeps getting worse. In my newsletter of October 14, under the subject heading “Israel’s Genocidal Intent in Gaza”, I explained:
I do not use the term “genocidal” lightly. I am not using it hyperbolically. This is the most frightening escalation of violence I have seen in all my years of observing and commenting on the conflict.
The Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide defines “genocide” as any of a number of acts “committed with intent to destroy, in whole or in part, a national, ethnical, racial or religious group”.
Such acts include “Killing members of the group”, “Causing serious bodily or mental harm to members of the group”, or “Deliberately inflicting on the group conditions of life calculated to bring about its physical destruction in whole or in part”.
This is precisely what Israel has indicated it intends to do in Gaza.
I do not hesitate now to say that what is happening in Gaza is genocide. Here are some basic facts that lead inescapably to that conclusion:
- Israel announced from the start its intent to deprive the civilian population of Gaza of basic goods and services necessary for survival, including food, water, electricity, and fuel; and it has since continued to deprive Palestinians of the ability to go on living.
- Only a tiny trickle of humanitarian aid has been allowed into Gaza through the Rafah border crossing from Egypt, which doesn’t even begin to meet the need in order to prevent mass death; and as of yesterday, UN humanitarian aid efforts have been effectively halted due to the lack of fuel, making delivery of aid impossible.
- The Israeli Defense Forces (IDF) have taken their “Dahiya Doctrine” of using deliberately disproportionate use of force — a war crime falling under the category of indiscriminate attacks — to whole new levels, with now over 11,000 dead Palestinians, mostly civilians, including over 3,000 women and over 4,500 children. Thousands of others are thought to be trapped under the rubble, and tens of thousands more have been injured.
- Israel has waged a campaign of ethnic cleansing of the entire north half of Gaza, warning civilians to flee to the south while also bombing the south in addition to leveling major areas in the north, such as dropping 2,000 pound bombs on the Jabaliya refugee camp, which is the most densely populated area in Gaza, which is one of the most densely populated strips of land on the planet.
- There are now 1.6 million internally displaced Palestinians in Gaza, a strip of land whose population already mostly consisted of refugees as a result of the Zionists’ ethnic cleansing of Palestine in 1948.
- Hundreds of thousands of Palestinians who remain in the north are struggling to obtain amounts of food and water necessary for survival.
- Israel has systematically targeted civilian infrastructure, including UN-run schools being used to shelter civilians and hospitals. The dead include over 100 UN aid workers.
- More than half of the hospitals in Gaza are now inoperable due to lack of power, medical supplies, food and water, and damage from Israel’s ongoing bombardments. In northern Gaza, there remains only one operable hospital. The inability of the health system to operate spells death for patients receiving critical care, including babies.
- At Gaza’s largest hospital, Al Shifa Hospital in the Gaza City, which is in the north and has been raided by Israeli forces, 40 patients died yesterday, and preparations for a mass grave inside the hospital compound are being made to bury 180 bodies that cannot be evacuated due to Israel’s ongoing military operations in the area.
- Those numbers I cited above of estimated Palestinian deaths are now five days outdated. The situation is so bad with the collapse of services, including most hospitals becoming inoperable, that the Gaza Ministry of Health can no longer even attempt to keep track of how many people are being killed.
What is happening in Gaza is absolutely horrific. And it is being supported by the government that claims to represent those of us who are Americans.
We must speak out against this massive crime against humanity.
I am continuing to pay close attention to this situation, which will remain my focus for as long as the urgency of the situation demands it.
