Consensus Finally Reached: Israel Is Committing Genocide

For nearly two years, the Israeli military has been relentlessly obliterating everything in Gaza. That destruction has not been hidden. The Palestinians who live in Gaza, the majority of whom are refugees forced to flee what became Israel in 1948, have been documenting every moment of the carnage. And in fact, Israeli soldiers have gleefully shared photos and videos of themselves destroying everything they see. The Israeli government has openly and repeatedly declared its intent to annihilate Palestinians.

For decades, Israel has denied it planned and carried out ethnic cleansing in 1948. It has insisted that the Nakba—the permanent expulsion of 750,000 Palestinians by Zionist militias—was actually the fault of everyone but Israel. Now, nearly 80 years later, Israeli politicians at the highest level openly plot to ethnically cleanse all of Gaza. It has been clear since October 7, 2023 that the current Israeli assault is the culmination of more than 140 years of colonization, dispossession, expulsion, and repeated massacres. This is genocide.

Yet, despite the overwhelming evidence that Israel’s actions have nothing to do with “self-defense” nor is the ongoing slaughter “just a war,” many continue to deny the reality of the situation. However, there is now a public consensus among the major human rights organizations in the world. Palestinians and Palestinian organizations have been at the forefront of imploring the world to recognize what is happening and to act. Al-Haq, the Palestinian Center for Human Rights, and Al-Mezan Center for Human Rights have been documenting Israel’s crimes for years. Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch, Médecins Sans Frontières (Doctors Without Borders), and many other organizations have now carefully assessed the best available evidence and determined that Israel is committing genocide.

And finally, B’Tselem, the leading Israeli human rights organization, along with Physicians for Human Rights-Israel have joined the international consensus in recognizing Israel is committing genocide. All of that sits alongside the United Nations bodies and many scholars of international law, human rights, and genocide and Holocaust studies that have also recognized the genocide. The International Criminal Court has charged Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu with war crimes, and the International Court of Justice (ICJ) case against Israel is ongoing. Those are positive developments even as they are too late and insufficient. However, we do not need to wait for consensus among experts to make clear moral and ethical determinations. Palestinians have been screaming for the world to stop this for nearly two years; we should listen to them and heed the call to act.

Like the American genocide of Indigenous peoples, the erasure of Palestine and Palestinians, literally and figuratively, is intrinsic to Israel’s existence.

Even if Israel is found guilty at the ICJ, genocide denial will continue. Many of those who support Israel’s actions will not be convinced by facts. In that case, we need to build the power necessary to confront and challenge those who defend genocidal violence. The ideological and propaganda apparatuses dedicated to obfuscating and denying reality are finally beginning to show cracks. We need to exploit and further break open those fissures. “Stand with Israel” dead-enders will be judged the same as any other genocide supporters and enablers throughout history.

The State of Israel, like many countries, was founded on crimes against humanity. Its project of exclusionary ethno-religious nationalism is a 19th-century anachronism that has brought untold death and destruction. It will fail. Israel’s live-streamed genocide is its undoing. Every pretense has been stripped away. Israel as its supporters imagine it never existed, and even that fantasy is gone.

Like the American genocide of Indigenous peoples, the erasure of Palestine and Palestinians, literally and figuratively, is intrinsic to Israel’s existence. But there is no going back. Palestinians will be free, and what the ICJ calls Israel’s “institutionalized régime of systematic oppression and domination of one racial group over another” will be dismantled in favor of equality and democracy. It is only a matter of time.