Many consultants have now concluded that Israel is committing genocide in Gaza. I agree.
Bernie Sanders speaks on the Preventing Oligarchy rally in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, on Might 2, 2025.
(Nathan Morris / NurPhoto through Getty Photographs)
Hamas, a terrorist group, started this warfare with its brutal assault on October 7, 2023, which killed 1,200 harmless individuals and took 250 hostages. Israel, as every other nation, had a proper to defend itself from Hamas.
However, during the last two years, Israel has not merely defended itself in opposition to Hamas. As a substitute, it has waged an all-out warfare in opposition to the whole Palestinian individuals. Many authorized consultants have now concluded that Israel is committing genocide in Gaza. The Worldwide Affiliation of Genocide Students concluded that “Israel’s insurance policies and actions in Gaza meet the authorized definition of genocide.” The Israeli human rights teams B’Tselem and Physicians for Human Rights–Israel have reached the identical conclusion, as have worldwide teams like Amnesty Worldwide and Human Rights Watch.
Simply yesterday, an unbiased fee of consultants appointed by the United Nations echoed this discovering. These consultants concluded: “It’s clear that there’s an intent to destroy the Palestinians in Gaza by way of acts that meet the factors set forth within the Genocide Conference.”
I agree.
Out of a inhabitants of two.2 million Palestinians in Gaza, Israel has now killed some 65,000 individuals and wounded roughly 164,000. The complete toll is probably going a lot larger, with many 1000’s of our bodies buried beneath the rubble. A leaked labeled Israeli army database signifies that 83 % of these killed have been civilians. Greater than 18,000 kids have been killed, together with 12,000 age 12 or youthful.
For nearly two years, the extremist Netanyahu authorities has severely restricted the quantity of humanitarian help allowed into Gaza and thrown up each potential hurdle to the United Nations and different help teams attempting to supply lifesaving provides. This contains an 11-week complete blockade through which Israel didn’t allow any meals, water, gasoline, or medical provides to enter Gaza. As a direct results of these Israeli insurance policies, Gaza is now gripped by man-made famine, with a whole lot of 1000’s of individuals going through hunger. Greater than 400 individuals, together with 145 kids, have already starved to dying. Every day brings new deaths from starvation.
Present Situation
However it’s not simply the human price. Israel has systematically destroyed Gaza’s bodily infrastructure. Satellite tv for pc imagery exhibits that the Israeli bombardment has destroyed 70 % of all buildings in Gaza. The UN estimates that 92 % of housing models have been broken or destroyed. At this very second, Israel is demolishing what’s left of Gaza Metropolis. Most hospitals have been destroyed, and virtually 1,600 well being care staff have been killed. Virtually 90 % of water and sanitation amenities are actually inoperable. A whole lot of colleges have been bombed, as has each single certainly one of Gaza’s 12 universities. There was no electrical energy for 23 months.
And that’s simply what we all know from help staff and native journalists—a whole lot of whom have been killed—as Israel bars exterior media from Gaza. Actually, Israel has killed extra journalists in Gaza than have been killed in any earlier battle. The outcome: There’s seemingly a lot we don’t know concerning the scale of the atrocities.
Now, with the Trump administration’s full assist, the extremist Netanyahu authorities is brazenly pursuing a coverage of ethnic cleaning in Gaza and the West Financial institution. Having made life unlivable by way of bombing and hunger, they’re pushing for “voluntary” migration of Palestinians to neighboring international locations to make manner for President Trump’s twisted imaginative and prescient of a “Riviera of the Center East.”
Genocide is outlined as actions taken with the “intent to destroy, in entire or partially, a nationwide, ethnical, racial or spiritual group.” The actions embrace killing members of the group or “intentionally inflicting on the group circumstances of life calculated to result in its bodily destruction in entire or partially.” The authorized query hinges on intent.
Israeli leaders have made their intent clear. Early within the battle, the protection minister mentioned, “We’re combating human animals and we’re appearing accordingly.” The finance minister vowed that “Gaza will likely be totally destroyed.” One other minister declared: “All Gaza will likely be Jewish… we’re wiping out this evil.” Israeli President Herzog mentioned, “It’s a whole nation on the market that’s accountable.” One other minister referred to as for “erasing all of Gaza from the face of the earth.” One other Israeli lawmaker mentioned, “The Gaza Strip needs to be flattened, and there needs to be one sentence for everybody there—dying. We have now to wipe the Gaza Strip off the map. There are not any innocents there.” One more Knesset member referred to as for “erasing all of Gaza from the face of the earth.” And, only in the near past, a minister in Israel’s high-level safety cupboard mentioned, “Gaza Metropolis itself needs to be precisely like Rafah, which we was a metropolis of ruins.”
The intent is obvious. The conclusion is inescapable: Israel is committing genocide in Gaza.
I acknowledge that many individuals could disagree with this conclusion. The reality is, whether or not you name it genocide or ethnic cleaning or mass atrocities or warfare crimes, the trail ahead is obvious. We, as Individuals, should finish our complicity within the slaughter of the Palestinian individuals. That’s the reason I’ve labored with quite a few my Senate colleagues to pressure votes on seven Joint Resolutions of Disapproval to cease offensive arms gross sales to Israel. The USA should not proceed sending many billions of {dollars} and weapons to Netanyahu’s genocidal authorities.
Having named it a genocide, we should use each ounce of our leverage to demand a right away ceasefire, an enormous surge of humanitarian help facilitated by the UN, and preliminary steps to supply Palestinians with a state of their very own.
Common
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However this subject goes past Israel and Palestine.
All over the world, democracy is on the defensive. Hatred, racism and divisiveness are on the rise. The problem we now face is to forestall the world from descending into barbarism, the place horrific crimes in opposition to humanity can happen with impunity. We should say now and endlessly that, whereas wars could occur, there are particular primary requirements that have to be upheld. The hunger of kids can’t be tolerated. The flattening of cities should not develop into the norm. Collective punishment is past the pale.
The very time period genocide is a reminder of what can occur if we fail. That phrase emerged from the Holocaust—the homicide of 6 million Jews—one of many darkest chapters in human historical past. Make no mistake. If there isn’t any accountability for Netanyahu and his fellow warfare criminals, different demagogues will do the identical. Historical past calls for that the world act with one voice to say: Sufficient is sufficient. No extra genocide.
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