11 January 2024 | International Solidarity Movement | The Hague, Netherlands
It came through a series of damning statements. A striking case for genocidal intent and acts tantamount to genocide by Israel against the totality of Gaza’s Palestinian population, was presented in a powerful, if gut wrenching, presentation by South Africa’s legal team this morning in a landmark case in the International Court of Justice. The charge, submitted to the ICJ on December 29th, seeks provisional measures for Israel to end its onslaught in Gaza related to clear violations of the 1948 Convention of the Prevention and Punishment of Genocide. A final ruling may be years in the making.
A fifteen judge panel heard the case laid out sharply by South Africa’s robust legal team. The most incriminating evidence could arguably be the presentation of the systematic normalization of genocidal rhetoric conveyed by Israel’s highest political offices and understood as state policy by the foot soldiers of the occupation army on the ground who made props and tiktok backdrops of their razing of entire residential blocks, universities and hospitals. Occupation forces on the ground comfortably filmed themselves committing shocking and prolific atrocities against Palestinians in Gaza without any attempt to hide their identities, painting a picture of collectively understood intent and impunity.
Here are the points of the case as laid out by South Africa before the International Court of Justice at the Hague.
Opening the hearing, lawyer Adila Hassim outlined, point by point, a case for Israel’s actions in Gaza as tantamount to genocide including the intentional destruction of infrastructure, the blocking of aid delivery, humanitarian mission denial and the intentional creation of conditions that would ravage survivors of bombardment with forcible starvation and infectious disease. Hassim cut to the bone of the ethnic cleansing project the world has witnessed in horror, “Reproductive violence against Palestinian women, children and babies,” held the intention of Israel’s war purveyors to, “impose measures to prevent birth in a group.”
Hassim carefully laid out the sheer breadth of the devastation Israel has wrought onto Gaza through “large-scale homicidal destruction,” before addressing the court for the closure of her remarks, “In sum, Madame President, all of these acts individually and collectively, form a calculated pattern of conduct by Israel indicating a genocidal intent.”
Lawyer Tembeka Ngcukaitobi followed up with more pointedly platformed statements of genocidal intent by high ranking members of the Israeli government. He referenced the “extraordinary features” of explicit language expressing intent to exterminate the Palestinian population of Gaza. Presenting a litany of exemplary evidence of rhetoric born in high political offices of the Israeli government, he then noted that the sentiments were, in turn, “repeated by Israeli soldiers on the ground in Gaza.”
Making a case for the normalization of rhetoric of intent, Ngcukaitobi presented quote after quote distributed from the upper echelons of Israel’s political and social bodies utilizing explicit exterminatory discourse with regards to the Palestinian population of Gaza, not of Hamas, which he then expertly threaded to statements and actions on the ground by occupation forces; the correlation of violence vocalized and violence committed. “Genocidal utterances, are therefore not in the fringes, they are embodied in state policy.”
Israeli society and occupation forces alike have an understanding of their government’s intent for the destruction of Gaza interwoven so deeply that, as Ngcukaitobi explained, they rose up in anger at talks of a limited trickle of aid entering the embattled Strip because it was a violation of Israel’s promises to starve Gaza’s population.
Arguing the question of jurisdiction and the existence of a dispute between South Africa and Israel, International Law Professor John Dugard assumed the floor and noted the recognition that Gaza “is now turned into a concentration camp where genocide is taking place.” He traced the steps which led from South Africa’s condemnation of Israel’s genocidal acts in the Security Council to the emergency special session of the General Assembly to its filing on December 29th with the ICJ seeking provisional measures for immediate cessation of genocidal acts on Gaza’s Palestinian population.
On outlining the pathway to the ICJ, Professor Dugard concluded his statements on the Republic of South Africa’s charge, “Despite these harsh accusations, Israel has persisted in its genocidal act against the population of Gaza.”
South African advocate Professor Max Du Plessis addressed the court for a statement on “the rights that South Africa seeks to preserve through its application.” He painted a picture of a trapped population existing piecemeal to this point on rights deprivations imposed by the occupying force “for more than half a century” in a world where Israel has operated as though it were “above and beyond the law.”
Arguing South Africa’s intention against turning the court “into a theater for spectacle,” the presentation of videos representative of convention violations were decided against. However, an unobjectionable case was made for provisional measures as the reality on the ground in Gaza reflects, as Professor Du Plessis pointed out, beyond a doubt, genocidal act definitions warned against in the 1948 convention including defined-group persecution of which Palestinians in Gaza represent and are being slaughtered as members thereof. Invoking provisional measures rulings in the cases of Ukraine, Bosnia and Gambia, Du Plessis contended that “Palestinians in Gaza are no less worthy of this court’s considerable protective power… to issue provisional measures.”
He then called Tshidiso Ramogale speaking to the “urgency and irreparable harm” conditions needed for the provisional measures bar to be met. Contexts on the ground in Gaza were expressed before the court in shocking detail. Food insecurity, looming specter of famine and daily births in a war zone.
“It is becoming ever clearer that huge swathes of Gaza; entire towns, villages, refugee camps are being wiped from the map.” From death littered streets to mass amputations to the fact that two mothers an hour are massacred in this aggression, Ramogale constructed rubble-wrought Gaza in the courtroom, in explicit retelling, to support South Africa’s case.
“There is an urgent need for provisional measures to prevent imminent, irreparable prejudice to the rights and issue in this case.” Hers was an aching expression of the real time genocide being narrated by Israel and witnessed by the world at large. “The situation could not be more urgent.”
Also making the case for precedent set by the court in prior rulings, the irreparable prejudice argument was exhibited aptly through stories “expressing scenes from a horror movie” through the stripping and humiliation of rounded up Palestinians to associated harms of infrastructure destruction to impromptu abductions by occupation foot soldiers.
Professor Vaughan Lowe appeared next, making the case that requirements of the convention have been met in order to urgently usher in provisional measures to halt the onslaught and promote the “right of the group to not be physically destroyed” as the death toll arches to 25,000 with masses of Palestinians still missing and presumed trapped in the rubble.
Stated plainly, Professor Lowe asserted that “Israel’s actions have violated its obligations under the genocide convention, they have continued to violate them and Israel has asserted that it intends to continue them.”
Palestinians gather in Ramallah’s Mandela Square in the occupied West Bank in support of South Africa’s genocide charge. Photo credit: ISM
Friday’s hearing will conclude with Israel’s utilization of the 3-hour case presentation allowable by the court to convince a horrified world that their prolific incitement to genocide and genocidal acts committed on the ground against the Palestinian population of Gaza is an act by any other name.
This episode of the International Solidarity Movement Podcast was recorded last year, long before the current Israeli genocidal attack against Gaza began. Since te interview took place the situation in the Jordan Valley has got much worse. Jordan Valley Solidarity (JVS) is still working to support the people of the Jordan Valley to stay on their land, despite massively increased settler violence and forced expulsions of entire Jordan Valley communities. This interview focuses on what JVS are struggling for: the beauty of the Jordan Valley, and the steadfastness of its people.
[00:00:00]Introduction: Hey, welcome to International Solidarity Movement Podcast [translation in Arabic]
[00:00:19]Tom: Hey, and welcome to episode 14 of the International Solidarity Movement podcast. In this episode, we speak to Rashid Khudary of the Jordan Valley Solidarity campaign. The Israeli state has wanted to annex the Jordan Valley since it occupied it in 1967. In 2021, Netanyahu announced final plans for the annexation of the valley, an area which makes up one third of the West Bank.
[00:00:41]Tom: People in the Jordan Valley resisted strongly against these plans, and there was an international outcry. Thankfully, the plans have been shelved for the moment, but the people of the Jordan Valley are under a constant threat from settlements expanding onto their land, from the violence of the Israeli settlers, from the closures of the Israeli military, which make most of the valley inaccessible to Palestinians. And from the constant demolitions of Palestinian property, which are carried out by the Israeli army. Jordan Valley Solidarity works to support the steadfast resistance of people in the Jordan Valley, to rebuild the schools and homes that have been demolished, and to celebrate the beauty of the Jordan Valley. Rashid talks about taking strength for the struggle from the natural world and the beauty of the land.
[00:01:23]Tom: And now over to Rashid to talk about life in the Jordan Valley and about the campaign, uh, in solidarity with people living there.
[00:01:44]Tom: I’m here with Rashid from Jordan Valley Solidarity at the beautiful house that you’ve built in Bardala. And I wondered if you could tell me about the Jordan Valley Solidarity campaign, about what you’ve been doing in the Jordan Valley, when it was established, and yeah, why there’s a need for a solidarity campaign for the communities in the Jordan Valley?
[00:02:02]Rashid: First, the Jordan Valley Solidarity Movement [was] established in 2003. Me, I joined since 2006. We as the Jordan Valley Solidarity, we are a network of Palestinians farmers from different communities, Palestinian farmers associations [together] with international solidarity and support [from] international volunteers. We work even with the Palestinian trade unions. Our main goal from our movement is to defend our population in the Jordan Valley to make him stay and [support them] resisting there.
[00:02:39]Rashid: Why the Jordan Valley [Solidarity] movement and why the Jordan Valley [is a] special area? First, the Jordan Valley region and area is very important and [strategic] for our Palestinian people in the whole region of Palestine and the West Bank because it’s very rich [in] resources in the Jordan Valley. Huge fields and a huge land, which is really very rich land, and it’s very rich of water resources in the Jordan Valley.
[00:03:11]Rashid: Even it’s the main border to travel from all West Bank, it’s only from Jordan Valley. To the Arabian [countries], to Jordan… From Jordan, we can travel to any place in the world. But because in the whole population [of] the West Bank, we are not allowed to travel from Israel to any country – even thousands or maybe millions of Palestinians – you are not allowed to enter to Israel.
[00:03:44]Rashid: And the Jordan Valley area for us it used to be, before, our main Palestinian breadbasket producing [all kinds] especially of vegetables. And before 1967, before the occupation and the war, it was the Palestinian population in the Jordan Valley, more than 300,000 [people].
[00:04:04]Rashid: Now we are only just 56,000 who [are] still resisting and living in the whole Jordan Valley, and there is thousands of Palestinians who’re refugees. Thousands of people after the war – after ’67, the Israeli policy… They abused our community and [policies against] our people making a lot of our people [get] out of the Jordan Valley through using different policy and displacement, most of our population [are now] outside of the area of the Jordan Valley.
[00:04:48]Rashid: Again, why the Jordan Valley? It was the Israelis who put this strategy and the plan before they even occupied the area… Now the Israelis, since 1967 until now, they’ve built 39 Israeli [colonies] in the Jordan Valley. They’ve built more than 20 army bases and army camps in the Jordan Valley. Even they control the main water resource through the Israeli company that they created in 1937, which they call it Mekarot company. This company, they build more than 20 water wells and taking the whole [of] our water resource under the ground and [controlling] it just for the Israeli settlers. Which that mean even we are not allowed, as Palestinians living in the Jordan Valley, to have the drinkable water. This is now one of the main Apartheid system the Israeli created in the Jordan Valley. Without respecting even the international law, without respecting the [human beings], and trying to use the water as a weapon and as a gun to [displace] our people and kick him outside of the Jordan Valley.
[00:06:01]Rashid: And in the same time, if you look into the Israeli settlements in the Jordan Valley, is totally so green, big swimming pool, having good economic and good agribusiness there – especially dates, flowers, vegetables, grape farms they have, the settlers – which most of this kind of product, the settlers, they export it outside in the world: in Europe, in the UK, in the United States, everywhere. They have like a free [subsidised] land, free water. They have huge fundraising from Israeli government and from different international government to occupy our land, not just to build this kind of agribusiness.
[00:06:48]Rashid: In the same times, we are as a civilian under occupation not having any kind of right. Our right of water, we are not allowed to have water. Our right of health service: even we are not allowed to build in the Jordan Valley any kind of hospital or health clinic. Our right of education: even we are not allowed to build the schools and not allowed to go to the school inside the Israeli colony.
[00:07:15]Rashid: This is kind of what we need as [human beings]… the Israeli government, they don’t respect [us]. And this is why [we] established the Jordan Valley Solidarity because we need any kind of help and support for our communities, for our people, for our farmers, for our women, our children, to support what we need to resist.
[00:07:36]Rashid: And exactly what we are doing: we built six schools in different villages and communities in Area C, we built two health clinics in the Jordan Valley, we build and renovate more than 200 houses from north to the south of the Jordan Valley. We build four pipe line of water to bring water from village to other village where family not allowed to have a water.
[00:08:03]Rashid: And we try to have more international solidarity and support because even we as Palestinians, we work mostly as a volunteers… And we need more hands, we need more internationals to join our work. We need more internationals who can help us writing articles [and reporting]. We need more internationals who can support our farmers working with our farmers to harvest, to plant.
[00:08:36]Rashid:[As well] there’s many [things internationals] can do. Especially for us [it] is very important for international [volunteers] to see the facts about the occupation, about this kind of conflict, how the Israeli government and Israeli soldiers, and even the Israeli settlers councils, how they are dealing in our [real] life. For confiscating our car sometimes, even confiscating our tractors when we are going to work in our field or in our farm, and even how they came to destroy our structures and our house or our school. Because all [all of the things the Israelis are doing] we don’t think [that all the] people in the world they know about it. And this is why it’s very important for internationals to come. Even they can help for recording for filming, taking pictures and publishing or sharing this kind of information with the people in the world. And even trying to do something for the families who lost their houses or for children who lost their schools.
[00:09:50]Rashid: Even we have different kind of activities, like planting trees, sometimes organizing walking trails, like a path where Palestinians and internationals they can crossing the area to enjoy the [nature], to show them our plants, our beauty in the Jordan Valley.
[00:10:10]Rashid: And even they can learn cooking in the wood, cooking with our women, the Palestinian food. That’s something for us – even it’s very important, to share it, to show them: even we have a life if we are under the occupation. If the Israelis [are] stealing our culture, our land, our water, stealing everything. But they cannot steal our resistance. They cannot steal that, we can still teach the people: about our life, about our beauty life in the Jordan Valley. To show them- because most of people they think we don’t have a real life. No, we have a life. We have children. We [are] trying to use this kind of education [as] a seed, to show people how we are [resisting] and how we are sharing our hope and our power through all these projects and activities [and] work in the Jordan Valley.
[00:11:04]Tom: You were saying in the car on the way here that very often people from the Jordan Valley and in Palestine in general, they talk about the the situation with the Israeli occupation, the attacks of the Israeli forces on Palestinian people. But… well, it makes people forget about talking about the beauty of, for example, life in the Jordan Valley.
[00:11:01]Tom: So the Jordan Valley Solidarity Campaign tries to preserve and document the cultural heritage and natural heritage in the area, right?
[00:11:50]Rashid: Yeah, we create a path from a village called Hammamat al Maleh to another village called Ein al Hilwa. And we call the path in Arabic: ‘Yalla min Al Maleh l’Ein al Hilwa’.
[00:12:10]Rashid: And this path, before we started, we made a big research which we make it with mostly volunteers: Palestinians from the university and activist groups who join us, even some teachers from schools, and we used to go to the mountains to take pictures [of] plant[s], and even trying to learn about the name and why they give this kind of name. And even we try to learn from the plant, which we know, or if we don’t know, if it’s used for any kind of thing, like some kind of a plant we have it, we use it for medicine. And the same, we learn about animals and we writing about all kinds of animals in the area.
[00:13:00]Rashid: … We collected the story of the place, why this village is called Hammamat al Malih. Hammamat, it means ‘shower’. And Al Maleh, it means ‘salty’… In this village [there were] seven showers, which is like a swimming pool, because the water in this community it was coming from the natural spring water which is hot water which is good for the skin and people they was using it as a medicine, when they have a problem in the body or in the skin.
[00:13:44]Rashid: And [there were] a lot of people [who] came from different areas to this place. Me personally, the last time I [went] swimming in this place [was] in 1998, with my parents and my family and a friend there. And it was very beautiful valley full of water. In this project, we try to bring people to see the nature, to see the beauty of the Jordan Valley. We [even planned] to build in this [community] a tent where women can produce all hand make stuff or food that they make it to sell.
[00:14:20]Rashid: The Israelis, they came, they destroyed this tent and even they confiscated my private car. And they kept it for two months, later they gave it back after I paid 2,175 [Shekels, which is over $500]… This is what’s happening, which that means even the Israelis, they don’t give us the right [to have] beauty – to enjoy our nature. To go hiking, to go for a walk, to enjoy the plants, to enjoy our time, especially in the spring. This is what they start trying to steal and they change even some areas, or they create some areas, which they call it a ‘close military firing zone’ and [it is] forbidden to enter to this area. And in the same time, they make it as a national park. And at the same time, we are not allowed to enter [these places] without having permission from the Israeli military, not even from the Israeli natural organization, you know. And all this… is just to control the land and our resources just for the settlers.
[00:15:35]Rashid: Even everyone in the world, I’m sure they are in love with nature and they don’t have any problem with nature. But the Israeli government, even they have the problem with the natural reserves area. Why? Because since 2014 until 2020, there was every years, especially the settlers from April to June, the summertime, they burn the natural area. Which that’s mean they kill a lot of seeds. In this time, in the years, there is a bird, we call it Shinar, some people they call it Al Hajal, we have gazelle, they give the baby from April to June. Which that mean when they burn it, they kill the seeds, which that mean, maybe some kind of a plant, we cannot find it again, they kill a lot of animals.
[00:16:38]Rashid: Why? Just because they don’t want our shepherd taking his sheep, or goats, or cow to the mountain to feed it from the [nature]. Even this kind of animals, they- they spread the seeds of a plant, which is good for the [nature]. But even they use the natural area to [displace] our people without respect even the [nature] or the plant and the animals.
[00:17:04]Rashid: This is what they do for our people and our humanity, you know, when they kill or they are shooting, or when they destroy our houses, or our schools, or our water.
[00:17:08]Rashid: This is why it’s very important to talk about it, because we don’t want even people in the world to be silent.
[00:17:17]Tom: We talked a bit about international support and about volunteers coming here. But in the past, I know there have been big campaigns outside of Palestine to boycott Israeli goods in supermarkets and particularly to boycott Carmel Agrexco, which was the Israeli state owned national exporter that was exporting goods particularly from the Valley. That company was liquidated, but there are many other companies like Mehadrin and Galilee that are still exporting from the Jordan Valley. What would you say about the importance of these boycott campaigns which are happening outside Palestine?
[00:18:04]Rashid: What I will say. I will say anyone who’s working or who’s buying, or they have any kind of project with this kind of authority or this kind of government, you know, that’s mean he’s agrees about all the crimes have been [done] to [human beings] in Palestine. That’s mean he’s supporting the Israeli soldiers to have more bullets to kill more Palestinians. That’s mean he’s support the Israeli bulldozers [which] destroy our schools and our houses. Who’s agree and who’s support?
[00:18:40]Rashid: If we just respect a [human being], everyone they should think he’s under occupation. Because what Israeli they do, because what [the] Israeli government they [are] doing, is not just against us. We are surviving, and we still resist, and we are still learning from what’s going on, and what’s happening [to] us, what’s happening with our neighbours, with our villages, to keep going and to fight.
[00:19:04]Rashid: And we don’t take any decision to go outside of our country, our land. But why people in the world, at least, they will not, by cutting the Israeli products? Or [links with] Israeli academi[a]? or Israeli support, or [links with] Israeli companies? – who are stealing our right of water, our right of education, our right of health service. If you just respect the idea of a [human] being, and if you want to have a world – really have the [real] democracy and [real] freedom, at least we have to boycott the Israeli government, at least.
[00:19:40]Rashid: And we need, of course, the whole kind of support from international people to make even a pressure to international governments who are supporting or who are agree about all these kind of [Israeli] crimes.
[00:19:50]Tom: Yeah, one of the things people talk about here, the idea of staying on the land, and remaining on the land. even when there’s huge pressure against them, when their houses are being destroyed, when their right to water, right to education is being taken away… Often you hear this word steadfastness being used to describe the resistance here. Can you talk about what drives people to carry on resisting against the occupation and remaining on the land here in the Jordan Valley? What is it that drives people to keep on resisting, do you think?
[00:20:38]Tom: And also another question I had was what hope do you have for the struggle against colonization here in the valley?
[00:20:46]Rashid: Just this question?
[00:20:48]Tom: Sorry!
[00:20:49]Nicole: Haha!
[00:20:50]Rashid: No, no, don’t worry! About hope, it’s not really easy to have hope. Even I hope that everyone will hear my message, you know. It’s not easy to imagine the situation, really, because… It’s every minute, every second, every day, especially in the area that Israeli create and call as the Jordan Valley, Area C, ‘closed military zones’. Every day people [are] having different kinds of challenges and they still resist. Sometimes, me personally, I have hope from animals, from birds, from plants, from the beauty of the Jordan Valley, from [the] strong man that I’m [working] with or a strong woman. I see here – how she’s resisting to build her oven that has been destroyed many times and cooking her own bread for her family, you know.
[00:21:55]Rashid: This is what gives me back more hope- sometimes from international volunteers or the international movement who’s supporting. It’s from different ways that we can have hope, to be honest. This is what we need, we need really support. As I told you before, I don’t feel like we are just occupied from Palestine, and we are not just as a Palestinians still under occupation. But, I’m thinking we are [occupied by all] international governments… The whole people in the world is still occupied… If we don’t have the freedom, and our justice, and our country back, that will mean all people [around the world] are still under occupation too.
[00:22:43]Rashid: This is my message. Did I answer you?
[00:22:44]Tom: Yeah, yeah, you answered. Thank you very, very much.
[00:22:45]Nicole: Yeah, that was amazing!
[00:22:45]Rashid: Thanks for you!
[00:22:52]Tom: And, yeah if you’re interested in finding out about Jordan Valley Solidarity, you can look at jordanvalleysolidarity.org. The campaign is asking for donations from people internationally as well.
[00:23:04]Tom: So, if you want to raise money for the campaign, you can donate through the website or get in touch with the campaign to hear more about the project.
[00:23:05]Rashid: Exactly, yeah.
[00:23:06]Tom: Is there anything else you want to say?
[00:23:08]Rashid: Ohhh yes. I will ask people to come and join our resistance and enjoy our vegetables, and our fruit, and our nature!
4 January 2024 | International Solidarity Movement | Tulkarm
By Diana Khwaelid
On the night of Tuesday, January 2, the Israeli occupation carried out a new incursion against the residents of the city of Tulkarm and its two refugee camps.
Tulkarm camp was turned into a place unsuitable for living, and Nur Shams camp was besieged for more than 22 hours. Dozens of military vehicles stormed Tulkarm, including D9 – D10 bulldozers and personnel carriers, and hospitals’ entrances were surrounded.
A ghost City.
Since the beginning of the Israeli incursion on Tulkarm, the city, nearby villages and the camps, have turned into a ghost area. Social life and daily activity stopped completely after the Israeli occupation forces stationed at all the entrances of the two camps.
The shops closed, including necessary activities like bakeries and pharmacies, and all sectors were at a standstill for more than 22 hours.
Tulkarm camp turned to ashes.
The Tulkarm refugee camp has turned from a lively and active camp full of joy, happiness and safety – despite the difficult life and suffering that Palestinians live in – into a destroyed gray camp, unsuitable for living. More than 10 shops and dozens of houses were destroyed; one of these houses was bombed by drones.
Wherever you look, you will see destruction, whether of Palestinian homes, streets, shops, walls of a house, a school, a playground: everything has been completely destroyed.
Life is very difficult in the camp, especially for women, children, and the elderly. The people of the camp no longer feel safe, especially after the recent incursions, and after the events of October 7, the situation in the camp and the West Bank in general has become more dangerous and worse. But despite everything, the residents of the camp remain steadfast, and said: “We will never surrender. Despite everything that the Israeli occupation does to us, we will remain on this land and we will remain in the camp even if it is completely destroyed.”
Nur Shams camp.
The Nur Shams refugee camp, northeast of Tulkarm, has turned into a closed military zone and has been besieged for more than 22 hours.
Electricity, water, internet and communication lines have been cut since the first hours of the Israeli incursion into the camp. The Israeli occupation forces raided and stormed dozens of Palestinian houses, and arrested more than 20 Palestinians men, most of whom were later released.
The main roads in the camp were also destroyed, especially in the AL-Manshiyya neighborhood. Difficult times are experienced by the residents of Nur Shams refugee camp: Palestinians are unsafe in their homes, and Israeli snipers are everywhere.
Also, Israeli reconnaissance aircraft have not left the skies of Tulkarm since the first minutes of the incursion.
The Israeli occupation forces continued to carry out incursions over incursions into more than one area of the West Bank, especially in the camps, and the fierce Israeli attacks have began more complicated since October 7.
02 January 2024 | International Solidarity Movement | Gaza
To whatever extent extermination rhetoric is a common tool of war, Israeli politicians and public figures have prolifically furnished the relentless and ongoing bombardment of the Gaza Strip with the language of genocide and ethnic cleansing. Those drums are being hammered with an ever accelerating pace as the Israeli government fights to control the narrative that the force of millions across the planet have wrested free. The global conscience has centered the lens squarely on the systemic mechanisms of Palestinian displacement, occupation and siege that uphold the state of Israel.
That frantic grappling for the incautious ear of the world has led to a stunning display of genocidal sentiment and the normalization of language blatantly expressive of the end game ethnic cleansing of the indigenous Palestinian population, by prominent Israeli political and social figures. It is a self-fueling phenomenon which has spawned colossal quantities of disturbing social media fare including occupation army troops in Gaza using her devastated wreckage as background props to dances, marriage proposals and choreographed skits mocking the destruction of homes and holy sites alike.
Websites educating on the process of genocide such as Genocide Watch feature the haunting map of organized mass killing, The Ten Stages of Genocide. The 2016 document precedes the listed steps by stating that “Genocide is a process that develops in ten stages that are predictable but not inexorable. At each stage, preventive measures can stop it.” By every account with regards to the massacre of Palestinian civilians in Gaza, Israel is in the extermination phase. One step away from completion.
Ten Stages of Genocide. Source: www.genocidewatch.net
Below is a truncated display of the predominant rhetorical drumbeat to genocide and ethnic cleansing in Gaza from the lips of occupation forces, Israeli politicians and public figures.
Invoking an old testament verse in a statement on the onslaught in Gaza, Benjamin Netanyahu urged the public, “You must remember what Amalek has done to you, says our Holy Bible – we do remember.” The verse, as has been noted, is “among the most violent.” In full it states, “I will punish the Amalekites for what they did to Israel when they waylaid them as they came up from Egypt. Now go, attack the Amalekites and totally destroy all that belongs to them. Do not spare them; put to death men and women, children and infants, cattle and sheep, camels and donkeys.”
Calling for the “annihilation” of Gaza, Moshe Zalman Feiglin, the leader of the libertarian zionist party Zehut has stated publicly that “Gaza should be razed and Israel’s rule should be restored to the place. This is our country.”
Israeli journalist David Mizrahy Verthaim made this admission on X, formerly Twitter, “We need a disproportionate response. If all the captives are not returned immediately, turn the strip into a slaughterhouse. If a hair falls from their head – execute security prisoners. Violate any norm, on the way to victory.”
Via Israeli parliamentary member Ariel Kallner, “Nakba to the enemy now! This day is our Pearl Harbour. We will still learn the lessons. Right now, one goal: Nakba! A Nakba that will overshadow the Nakba of 48. A Nakba in Gaza and a Nakba for anyone who dares to join!” He is joined by other public figures in casual use of a nuclear option in Gaza.
In the Knesset, member Galit Distal Atbaryan posted on social media in support of “erasing all of Gaza from the face of the Earth. Gaza needs to be wiped out.”
Likud member in parliament Amit Halevi publicly stated his “goals for this victory. One, there is no more Muslim land in the land of Israel. After we make it the land of Israel, Gaza should be left as a monument, like Sodom.”
A disturbing and now viral tiktok video features a member of occupation forces declaring that, “All people in Gaza need to die,” before admitting to killing two Palestinians followed with a celebratory dance. “I want to kill more, more.” Nothing about this video is stand-alone as across all social media platforms, recorded statements normalizing the murder of Palestinians are in shocking abundance.
Ten Stages of Genocide. Source: www.eachother.org
The brazen use of extermination rhetoric points to Israel’s long understood exemption from consequence for horrific international law and human rights violations as Israeli anti-zionist Neta Golan points out, “Usually people who commit genocide don’t say that they’re going to commit genocide but Israelis have experienced impunity for so long that they think they can announce their intent to commit genocide, commit genocide and get away with it.” She concludes with a sentiment that may have a growing wind behind the actualization of it, “We hope they’re wrong about that.”
Enter South Africa.
Themselves victorious in overthrowing the brutal white-ruled system of racial apartheid in the 1990’s, South Africa’s government has filed charges against Israel for committing genocide in Gaza with the International Court of Justice, both for their brutal bombardment as well as for collective punishment of water, food, fuel and medical siege in the Gaza Strip. Israel will appear before the ICJ in the Hague to answer to these charges. Given the trove of genocidal rhetoric confidently streaming out of Israel, coupled with the real-time documentation by Palestinian journalists and civilians on the ground, it is difficult to imagine the anatomy of a defense to these charges.
These words, and many like them, alongside the actions carrying them out (including the indiscriminate bombing and murder of 22,000 people, three quarters of them women and children) act as proven intent on the part of the perpetrators to carry out genocide.
There is an understanding that is born out of all of these horrors. For the far right, extremist Israeli government, the destruction, cleansing and ultimate plan for the erasure of Gaza has nothing to do with liberating hostages. Hostage negotiators in real time communication with hostage takers act carefully, they walk lightly, they speak softly. They do not incite as their language can ignite the wick of an incendiary escalation of hostility which can lead to the death of those whose release they are working to secure.
Yet occupation authorities have inflamed tensions, antagonized Palestinians across the Gaza Strip and incited violence every step of the way. They have acted with pure provocation and blatant endangering of hostages lives along with the Palestinian civilians and children who they have mass murdered in the indiscriminate bombardment. They have bombed and flooded likely hostage positions on the ground. If hostages were liberated, it would remove the performative pretense behind this wholesale slaughter.
This onslaught is about the intentional extermination of a people and the theft of their ancestral land and resources. It is the mass-killing and replacement of the indigenous Palestinian population and the smothering of their culture.
30 December 2023 | International Solidarity Movement | Tulkarm
A new Israeli incursion into the Nur Shams refugee camp continues an endless war of destruction after destruction.
On the night of Sunday December 30th dozens of military vehicles, including D9 bulldozers, stormed the city of Tulkarm and the Nur Shams refugee camp northeast of the city.
This invasion took place around midnight where the occupation forces surrounded the hospitals in the city, obstructing the movement of ambulances in transporting the injured Palestinians to hospitals.
The citizens taking stock of partially broken houses.
The Israeli occupation forces besieged the Nur Shams refugee camp for at least 11 continuous hours, from Sunday evening until Monday morning at 10:00 AM. During this, they destroyed infrastructure, cut off electricity, destroyed the water network and cut internet and communication lines.
According to the Palestinian Ministry of Health, the Red Crescent crews dealt with several injuries on people from both the Nur Shams refugee camp and Tulkarm camp, including a serious injury to a person from Tulkarm camp after the storming of this camp, which took place simultaneously with the storming of Tulkarm city and Nur Shams camp by the Israeli Occupation Forces .
Dalal and Ahmed Khalifa, two Palestinian citizens of the camp whose house was invaded by the Occupation Forces said that the Israeli occupation forces broke into the house at about 3:00 AM.
Picture from inside Dalal Khalifa and her son Ahmed’s house following the IOF invasion.
“The occupation forces confiscated all the family’s phones and our IDs, destroyed the house, broke windows and doors, conducted an investigation inside the house, and interrogated all family members, including women.” explained Dalal.
“The Israeli occupation forces did not take into account the presence of children and women in the house, as there were 5 children and two women in the house at the time of the break-in,” she said. “One of the soldiers stole my wallet and stole some of my money, and their break-in continued for at least 5 continuous hours until they left the next morning at 7:30 am.“
78-year-old Hassan Jabari whose house was damaged, explained that “The Israeli occupation forces broke into my house in the camp, and destroyed it from the inside, destroying household furniture and breaking windows. Half of my house was demolished.”
Hassan Jabari clears rubble from his house following the IOF invasion.
“Thank God I was not at home at the time of the storming of the camp. I was at my daughter’s house in Thenaba – one of the villages next to the camp.” He added.
In the recent incursion into the camp, dozens of Palestinian homes were partially or fully destroyed both from inside and outside. The wall belonging to one of the UNRWA international institutions in the camp was destroyed.
During December, the Nur Shams refugee camp has been stormed at least 5 times.
