Rights groups in Israel call out genocide in Gaza for first time : NPR
The Palestinians cling to an aid truck returning to Gaza City from the north of Gaza Strip on Sunday.
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Like Aviv, Israel – two eminent Israeli rights groups said on Monday that their country was committing a genocide in Gaza, the first time the local organizations led by the Jews made such accusations against Israel for almost 22 months of war.
The statements of B’tselem and doctors for human rights -Israel are added to an explosive debate on the question of whether the military offensive of Israel in Gaza – was launched in response to the deadly attack of Hamas on October 7, 2023, equivalent to a genocide.
The Palestinians, their supporters and their international human rights groups make this complaint, and the International Court of Justice hears a case of genocide filed by South Africa against Israel.
But in Israel, founded following the holocaust, even the strongest criticisms of the government have greatly refrained from making such accusations.
It is because of the deep sensitivities and strong memories of the Nazi genocide of European Jews, and because many in Israel consider war in Gaza as a justified response to the deadliest attack in the history of the country and not an attempted extermination.
Breaking a taboo in Israel
Rights defense groups, although prominent and respected internationally, are considered in Israel to be on the political margins, and their opinions are not representative of the vast majority of Israelis. But having the allegation of genocide comes from Israeli voice breaks a taboo in a society which has been reluctant to criticize the conduct of Israel in Gaza.
Guy Shalev, director of doctors for human rights-Israel, said the Jewish-Israeli public often rejected accusations of genocide as anti-Semitic or biased against Israel.
Humanitarian aid is broadcast to the Palestinians of Gaza City, Gaza Strip on Monday.
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“Perhaps human rights groups based in Israel, and coming to this conclusion is a way to confront this accusation and bring people to recognize reality,” he said.
Israel affirms that he is fighting against an existential war and respects international law. He rejected the allegations of genocide as anti -Semitic.
This questions such allegations to the International Court of Justice, and she rejected the allegations of the International Criminal Court that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and former Minister of Defense Yoav Gallant have committed war crimes in Gaza. Both are facing international arrest warrants.
The government of Israel did not immediately comment on the reports of B’tselem and Phri. Israeli officials largely blame civil death in Gaza on Hamas, saying that it uses civilians as shields by integrating activists into residential areas.
“The assertion of Israel that Hamas fighters or members of other armed Palestinian groups were present in medical or civil facilities, often manufactured without providing evidence, cannot justify or explain systematic and widespread destruction,” said the B’tselem report.
The reports echo international complaints
Rights defense groups, in distinct reports published jointly, said that Israel’s policies in Gaza, declarations of senior officials on its objectives there and the systematic dismantling of the territory’s health system contributed to their conclusion of the genocide.
Their complaints have echoed those of previous reports of international rights groups like Human Rights Watch and Amnesty International.
Like other rights defense groups, B’tselem and doctors for human rights – Israel were not allowed to enter Gaza during the war. Their reports are based on testimonies, documents, eyewitnesses and consultations with legal experts.
The attack on Hamas against Israel, which sparked the war sparked a change in the country’s policy towards the Palestinians to “repression and control over destruction and annihilation,” said B’tsem.
The group has long been frank on the treatment by Israel of the Palestinians. This interrupted cooperation with the military almost a decade ago, saying that army surveys on reprehensible acts were not serious, and he accused Israel of being an apartheid state.
The Phri report was a detailed and medical analysis focused on what it called the step -by -step dismantling of Gaza health and survival systems, including electricity, clean water and access to food.
His report indicates that Israel has committed three of the acts of genocide defined by international law, in particular “deliberately inflicted on the living conditions of life calculated to cause its physical destruction in whole or in part”.
Israeli rights groups have said that repeated statements by Israeli officials and the army approving total destruction, famine and the permanent displacement of Palestinians in Gaza, combined with field policies, have shown that Israel intentionally tried to destroy Palestinian society.
A “painful” conclusion
The term “genocide” affects a sensitive string in Israel, where the Israelis grow up by learning about the holocaust and hearing painful stories of the survivors, while promising that this would never happen again.
The 1948 Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide was written in the aftermath of the Second World War and the murder by Nazi Germany of 6 million Jews. He defines genocide as acts “committed to the intention of destroying, in whole or in part, a national, ethnic, racial or religious group”.
“As a grandson of a Holocaust survivor, it is very painful for me to reach this conclusion,” said Shalev de Phri. But after having grown up in a society where the holocaust was so important, it requires a kind of responsibility, he said.
Until now, Israeli war criticism in Gaza has focused on Netanyahu and if its decision -making decision has been politically motivated and has delayed the return of the hostages – 50 of them still in Gaza.
A wider examination of Israel’s conduct in Gaza has been limited for several reasons. Despite the vast destruction and death in the territory and the growing international isolation of Israel, most of the Israelis believed for a large part of the war in his justice.
And with most of the Jewish Israelis serving in the army, it is difficult for most people to understand that their relatives in uniform could perform a genocide. Some soldiers, however, refused to fight in war.
Jeffrey Herf, a historian who has published a lot on anti -Semitism, said that the allegation of genocide does not take into account that there is a war between two parties. He said that he ignores Hamas as a military force and the right of Israel to defend himself.
The Israelis focus on hostages, not the Palestinians
After groups like B’tselem in recent years have accused Israel of apartheid, more traditional voices in Israel have also taken the complaint, although in a less radical way.
Israeli historian Tom Segev said he was not sure that new relationships and allegations will have an impact on the public.
“The major thing for Israelis is a question of hostages, not necessarily the fate of the population in Gaza,” he said. But he said that what is happening in Gaza undermines the ideological and moral justification for the existence of Israel.
The rights defense groups said that the international community had not done enough to protect the Palestinians and invites the world, including the Israelis who remained silent, to speak.
“We have the obligation to do everything we can tell the truth about this, to support the victims,” said Sarit Michaeli, international director of B’tselem.
