By Black Star News
Photos: Wikimedia Commons
The human rights group Israeli Information Center, known as B’Tselem, in a new report is now admitting that what Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s government is doing against Palestinians in Gaza is: genocide.
This report is noteworthy. It is the first such from an Israeli organization. Ever since Netanyahu started his mass bombing campaign, after the Oct. 7 Hamas attacks, so-called Israeli human rights groups have turned a blind eye to the mass slaughter of Palestinians. Even principled critiques of Israel’s Palestinian policy is called anti-Semitic.
B’Tselem also talked about the use of the Oct.7 attacks to launch genocide.
“Often, a violent event that creates a sense of existential threat among the perpetrating group is the catalyst for the ruling system to carry out genocide. The attack by Hamas and other Palestinian armed groups on 7 October 2023 was a catalyst of this kind. The atrocious attack, aimed mostly at civilians, included many war crimes and likely also crimes against humanity. It took the lives of 1,218 Israelis and foreign nationals, 882 of them civilians, involved extensive and severe acts of violence, including sexual violence, and resulted in tens of thousands of people wounded and the abduction of 252 people to the Gaza Strip – most of them civilians, including women, elderly people and children. The youngest child abducted was a nine-month-old baby who was killed, along with his three-year-old brother and their mother, while held in Gaza. For Israelis, the very fact of the attack, its scope and its outcomes, generated anxiety and a feeling of existential threat to a degree that led to profound social and political changes in Israeli society. These instigated a shift in Israeli policy toward Palestinians in the Gaza Strip: from repression and control to destruction and annihilation.”
Back in 2021, B’Tselem made news by calling Israel an apartheid regime. Previously, they also spoke out against Israel’s criminality against Palestinians.
This new verdict by B’Tselem is taking place after nearly two years of continuous bombing in Gaza–that has killed at least 60,000 Palestinians. It also comes as we now hear an increasing international cry regarding the mass starvation of Palestinians.
B’Tselem has said that the actions and statements of the Israeli government illustrates they are conducting an ongoing genocide.
They note that: “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 action to intentionally destroy Palestinian society in the Gaza Strip. In other words: Israel is committing genocide against Palestinians in the Gaza Strip.”
B’Tselem is also warning that the Netanyahu government may push their genocide program into the West Bank.
They gave this admonition: “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.”
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