OPINION: Gaza, now an enclave of genocide and crimes against humanity

Last Updated on Sunday, 10 March 2024, 9:40 by Denis Chabrol

By Dr. Randy Persaud, Professor Emeritus, American University, Washington DC.

More than 30,000 Palestinians in Gaza have been killed by incessant military activities by the Israeli Defense Force. Most of the dead are women and children, and noncombatants. Although Israel undoubtedly has every right to defend itself, it does not have the right to wantonly violate every international and humanitarian law that exists. That, it has done. Worse yet, it has done so with impunity. Western government and intellectuals (including the media) who normally pontificate on a rules-based international order have gone silent as the mass bloodshed continues.

The latest reports from the field indicate that 68% of Israelis are against food, water, medicines, and other critical supplies being delivered to the two million souls who now live in abject squalor in what has become the world’s contemporary concentration camp. Children are now dying from dehydration and starvation, these being the result of intentional policies to drive the Palestinians out of Gaza into the Saini.

It is my considered professional judgement that we are witnessing genocide being perpetrated right before our eyes, globally televised. Let it be clear that even if a state is prosecuting a ‘just war’ it cannot violate international law, or well established international norms and conventions. Apropos, Article I of the Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide states that “The Contracting Parties confirm that genocide, whether committed in time of peace or in time of war, is a crime under international law which they undertake to prevent and punish.” Israel has violated this.

Article II is clear about what constitutes genocide. It states that “[i]n the present Convention, genocide means any of the following acts committed with intent to destroy, in whole or in part, a national, ethnical, racial or religious group, as such:

(a) Killing members of the group;

(b) Causing serious bodily or mental harm to members of the group;

(c) Deliberately inflicting on the group conditions of life calculated to bring about its physical destruction in whole or in part;

(d) Imposing measures intended to prevent births within the group;

(e) Forcibly transferring children of the group to another group.

It is critically important to understand that Israel’s justification for the genocide cannot be sustained. The justification is that Hamas should be wiped out because of its terrorist attack on Israel on October 7, 2023. What should be noted though is that in addition to the 30,000 killed in Gaza, 7,505 persons have been killed in the West Bank by the IDF. In addition, there have been consistent IDF raids in the West Bank to destroy homes and public utilities, and other infrastructure.

Israel will dismiss charges of genocide as anti-Semitic propaganda. But that is a tall order because the most influential figure in the construction of the framework of genocide, Raphael Lemkin, was a Polish Jew who lost 49 members of his family in the holocaust. Lemkin, who was a lawyer by training and profession, is the person who coined the term genocide. He has a broader interpretation of what constitutes genocide, and by his definition, there is no doubt that Israel is guilty.

Israel is undoubtedly in violation of numerous articles of the Geneva Convention (1949) and their Additional Protocols (1977 & 2005). Although Israel has not signed the Additional Protocols, the force of customary international law still makes it obligatory for it to adhere to all the protections of civilians, children, the wounded, the sick, and of critical infrastructure including hospitals, power stations, and so on.

Beyond the violation of international humanitarian law, Israel has prosecuted its war against the Palestinians in Gaza with a war-fighting strategy that goes well beyond military objectives consistent with its national security. One way to verify this is the ways in which Precision Guided Munitions have be employed. PGMs (including systems such as the Joint Direct Attack Munitions – JDAMs) are sophisticated enough to put a missile through a window. Yet, the evident wall-to-wall carpet bombing of Gaza City, Khan Younis, and Rafah, betray the stated objective of taking out Hamas. Instead of JDAMs being used to minimize casualties, they appear to have been used to do the exact opposite, such as bombing of hospitals resulting in mass casualties. Put differently, while the IDF has the military capability (weapon systems and technical intelligence) to take out targets with minimal civilian casualties, it has embarked on a form of total warfare.

As used here, “[t]otal warfare is a war that is unrestricted in terms of the weapons used, the territory or combatants involved, or the objectives pursued, especially one in which the laws of war are disregarded” (Oxford Reference). Some may argue that instances of total war over the past century include the Japanese killing of 300,000 Chinese civilian and hors de combat in Nanjing in December 1937; the bombing of Dresden by the Allied Forces between February 13-15, 1945 that killed between 35,000-100,000; and the bombing of Nagasaki and Hiroshima also in 1945 that killed over 225,000 persons most of whom were civilians. All of these had elements of revenge or disregard for the sanctity of human life.

According to Euro-Med Human Rights Monitor, the IDF has also used white phosphorus (Al Jazeera, 10/13/2023), and fuel air explosives. For more on this click here. Note that declassified National Security Council (USA) documents show that Israel had requested thermobaric weapons since 1975.

October 7, 2023 was a horrific day in Israel. Hamas’ attack that day, is a day in infamy. The context of its oppression still does not justify killing innocent civilians. Regrettably, Israel’s response has been one defined by horrific vengeance. The mass killing of noncombatants, children, and women, combined with the willful starvation of innocents, and the wanton destruction of hospitals, schools, libraries, museums, water treatment plants, factories, places of worship, and even refugee camps, have no place in civilized life or a just world order. These are crimes against humanity.

Dr. Randy Persaud

(The perspective expressed here are my own and do not reflect the views of any entity to which I am attached).