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Our Genocide

Since October 2023, Israel has shifted its policy toward the Palestinians. Its military onslaught on Gaza, underway for more than 21 months, has included mass killing, both directly and through creating unlivable conditions, serious bodily or mental harm to an entire population, decimation of basic infrastructure throughout the Strip, and forcible displacement on a huge scale, with ethnic cleansing added to the list of official war objectives. 

This is compounded by mass arrests and abuse of Palestinians in Israeli prisons, which have effectively become torture camps, and tearing apart the social fabric of Gaza, including the destruction of Palestinian educational and cultural institutions. The campaign is also an assault on Palestinian identity itself, through the deliberate destruction of refugee camps and attempts to undermine the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA).

An examination of Israel’s policy in the Gaza Strip and its horrific outcomes, together with statements by senior Israeli politicians and military commanders about the goals of the attack, leads to the unequivocal conclusion that Israel is taking coordinated, deliberate action to destroy Palestinian society in the Gaza Strip. In other words: Israel is committing genocide against the Palestinians in the Gaza Strip. 

The term genocide refers to a socio-historical and political phenomenon involving acts committed with intent to destroy, in whole or in part, a national, ethnic, racial or religious group. Both morally and legally, genocide cannot be justified under any circumstance, including as an act of self-defense. 

Genocide always occurs within a context: there are conditions that enable it, triggering events, and a guiding ideology. The current onslaught on the Palestinian people, including in the Gaza Strip, must be understood in the context of more than seventy years in which Israel has imposed a violent and discriminatory regime on the Palestinians, taking its most extreme form against those living in the Gaza Strip. Since the State of Israel was established, the apartheid and occupation regime has institutionalized and systematically employed mechanisms of violent control, demographic engineering, discrimination, and fragmentation of the Palestinian collective. These foundations laid by the regime are what made it possible to launch a genocidal attack on the Palestinians immediately after the Hamas-led attack on 7 October 2023.

The assault on Palestinians in Gaza cannot be separated from the escalating violence being inflicted, at varying levels and in different forms, on Palestinians living under Israeli rule in the West Bank and within Israel. The violence and destruction in these areas is intensifying over time, with no effective domestic or international mechanism acting to halt them. We warn of the clear and present danger that the genocide will not remain confined to the Gaza Strip, and that the actions and underlying mindset driving it may be extended to other areas as well. 

The recognition that the Israeli regime is committing genocide in the Gaza Strip, and the deep concern that it may expand to other areas where Palestinians live under Israeli rule, demand urgent and unequivocal action from both Israeli society and the international community, and use of every means available under international law to stop Israel’s genocide against the Palestinian people. 

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Frequently Asked Questions

What is genocide?

Genocide is the violent and intentional destruction of a group as such or the attempt to do so, causing serious and irreparable harm to the group. In the words of Raphael Lemkin, the Jewish-Polish jurist who coined the term: genocide is a “coordinated attack” on the various aspects of life of a distinct national, ethnic, religious or racial group, through various actions whose purpose is to destroy the essential foundations of the group’s life, with the goal of destroying the group itself. Both morally and legally, genocide can never be justified under any circumstances – including as an act of self-defense.

How did you reach the conclusion that Israel is committing genocide in Gaza?

Statements by senior Israeli officials and actions on the ground prove beyond any doubt that, in Israel’s eyes, the entire population of the Gaza Strip is the target. Israel has been leading a systematic policy for almost two years, with clear and visible outcomes: entire cities erased, the healthcare system shattered, educational, religious and cultural institutions destroyed, more than 2 million people forcibly displaced, and masses killed and starved. All this and more, put together, constitutes a coordinated attack on all aspects of Palestinians’ life. It is a clear and explicit attempt to destroy Palestinian society in Gaza and create catastrophic living conditions that prevent the continued existence of this society in Gaza. That is precisely the definition of genocide.

The UN Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide emphasizes the importance of intent to destroy the group as a group. International courts that have deliberated on the matter determined that "intent" can be inferred from documents and statements by policymakers, as well as from the pattern of conduct of the perpetrating forces. In the case of our genocide, the actions and statements of Israeli politicians and military officials, and especially policymakers, as well as the pattern of Israel's conduct in Gaza, clearly demonstrate that intent.

How did we get to a point where the Israeli regime is committing genocide against the Palestinians?

Genocide is usually the result of a gradual development, over years, of conditions in which a repressive and discriminatory regime turns genocidal. Decades of occupation, oppression and apartheid have produced deep dehumanization of Palestinians, who have come to be viewed by Israelis as a threat and as a problem to be “solved.” Conditions of this kind can persist for a long time without leading to genocide. Often, a violent event that creates a sense of existential threat serves as the trigger that leads to the commission of genocide in practice.

In the case of our genocide, the horrors of 7 October 2023 and the trauma experienced by Israeli society were, in practice, the trigger for an all-out assault on the Gaza Strip, which was presented as an act of self-defense. The immense trauma of Israelis was exploited by the current extreme-right government to advance a policy that key figures had already been trying to promote.

Why does the report warn of a risk that the genocide will spread to other areas under Israeli control?

Genocide is the systematic and intentional destruction of a group, and in Gaza we are witnessing this in its most extreme form. Meanwhile, the same government and the same forces are escalating violence in the West Bank, including East Jerusalem, and inside Israel. In all of these areas, Palestinians are being abandoned to escalating violence, forcible displacement, collective punishment, and denial of their human rights – solely because they are Palestinian. Israeli politicians and public figures have repeatedly stated that the destruction Israel is carrying out in Gaza should be extended to the West Bank, and we believe this incitement must be taken seriously and stopped before it is fulfilled.

The genocide is happening now in the Gaza Strip, but any trigger could cause it to rapidly spread to other areas under Israel’s control. Currently, there is no mechanism, domestic or international, that will stop it.

How does the report address the Hamas-led attack on 7 October 2023?

The Hamas-led attack on southern Israel on 7 October 2023 included horrific crimes and marked a terrible milestone in a long history of violence and killing. The report addresses the deep trauma experienced by Israelis that day, and the Israeli hostages, some of whom are still being held in Gaza. Our analysis shows how the Israeli government has cynically exploited the trauma experienced by many Israelis and used it to carry out genocide and ethnic cleansing in the Gaza Strip.

One crime does not justify another – certainly not the mass killing of civilians or an attempt to erase and destroy an entire group. There is nothing that can justify genocide, and starvation and destruction have nothing to do with self-defense. The only way to ensure that the horrors of 7 October do not recur is to immediately stop the annihilation, and demand equality, justice, freedom and security for all the people living between the Jordan River and the Mediterranean Sea.

What needs to be done now?

What needs to be done now? In the immediate term, the understanding that the Israeli regime is committing genocide in the Gaza Strip, and the deep concern that it will expand to other areas where Palestinians live under Israeli rule, demand urgent and clear action – by the Israeli public and by the international community. Now is the time to raise our voices and resist. Now is the time to use every means available under international law to save whoever and whatever we can, and to put an end to the continued suffering of millions of people.

Israel’s regime of apartheid and occupation is inextricably bound up in human rights violations. B’Tselem strives to end this regime, as that is the only way forward to a future in which human rights, democracy, liberty and equality are ensured to all people, both Palestinian and Israeli, living between the Jordan River and the Mediterranean Sea.

Since the Hamas attack on 7 October 2023, Israel has acted in a coordinated and deliberate manner to destroy Palestinian society in the Gaza Strip, committing genocide against its residents. In light of Israel’s actions in Gaza, the public statements made by Israeli decision-makers, and the international community’s failure to take effective action, there is a serious risk that the Israeli regime will expand the genocide to other areas under its control—first and foremost, the West Bank.
B’Tselem calls on the Israeli public and the international community to use every tool available under international law to bring an immediate end to Israel’s genocide against the Palestinian people.