eloquent genocides

19 min read RAFAEL POCH-DE-FELIU 0 comments

What makes the current Israeli massacre in Gaza unique is the transparency with which its promoters openly call for genocide

RAFAEL POCH-DE-FELIU

Historically, annihilating purposes are denied and hidden by their protagonists. The Young Turks, or the Nazis, for example, left hardly any declarative and printed evidence of their intentions against Armenians and Jews. Discretion prevailed.

The Israeli authorities have openly proclaimed these intentions with astonishing eloquence. Bathed in a self-justifying national ideology of colonialism and supremacism with roots that link religion and ethnicity, and that routinely dehumanizes Palestinians, Israeli society naturally consumes, assumes and projects the message.

Outside Israel, more and more Jews have broken with Zionism and support a just order between Israel and Palestine. What is happening in the American Jewish community, especially among the youth, is encouraging in that regard, but in Israel it is much more difficult. Taking the path of decency and justice results in great relief, but requires going through a painful process, full of emotional, educational, family and social ruptures, explain the Israelis who have done it. Without going through this, Israeli society is condemned to continue its current crazy career and its state will have no future.

The complaint presented by South Africa before the International Court of Justice in The Hague is an act of internationalist solidarity, particularly rare in a State. The history of South Africa itself explains why its republic has taken the step that no one in Europe or the Arab world dares to take: challenging the United States in court, the leading world power without whose sponsorship Israel's crazy career would be untenable.

The International Court of Justice is part of the UN system, established by the United States to suit itself and its partners after 1945. Everything pushes, therefore, its judges to reject immediate and mandatory precautionary measures, requested by South Africa to end the martyrdom of Gaza. But that will not be easy nor can it be done without entailing important consequences.

The strength of the South African complaint lies in the evidence provided by the verbal incontinence of the Israeli authorities proclaiming their genocidal intention, as well as in the overwhelming evidence provided about the massacre by sources, organizations and officials of the UN, that is, by the same organization. of which the International Court of Justice is the legal arm.

If the court does what it has almost always done, that is, not oppose the designs that gave it life and resolve the matter with a nebulous legal declaration without practical consequences for the end of the massacre, the case will automatically become a condemnation of that international system founded by the West and today in manifest crisis in the eyes of the majority of humanity. The inaction of “international justice” in the face of such a flagrant case of barbarism supported by the West will be a historic scandal, loaded with consequences. Pay attention, then, to the verdict on precautionary measures.

In the meantime, it is worth reading even just the part dedicated to the genocidal proclamations of the Israeli leaders contained in the eighty-page document of the South African complaint. It is an extraordinarily well presented document from all points of view, to which the established Western media, with their usual shamelessness, have not devoted the slightest attention. (The translation provided here is not official. Each of the statements has its source. For reasons of space, this translation does not include the sources either. To identify them, consult the original. Application instituting proceedings and Request for the indication of provisional measures (icj-cij.org) ):

Declarations of genocidal intent against the Palestinian people by Israeli state officials and others. (Excerpted from South African submission to the International Court of Justice).

The evidence of the specific intent ('dolus specialis') of Israeli State officials to commit and persist in committing genocidal acts or to fail to prevent them has been significant and manifest since October 2023.
These declarations of intent, combined with the level of killings, mutilations, displacement and destruction on the ground and in the siege, evidence a continued and ongoing genocide.
They include statements from the following people in positions of maximum responsibility:

– Prime Minister of Israel: On October 7, 2023, in a speech televised by the Government
In a government press conference, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu promised to “act forcefully everywhere.” On October 13, 2023, he confirmed that “we are striking our enemies with unprecedented power…”

On October 15, 2023, when Israeli airstrikes had already killed more than 2.670 Palestinians, including 724 children, the Prime Minister declared that Israeli soldiers “understand the scope of the mission” and are prepared “to defeat the bloodthirsty monsters who have risen up against [Israel] to destroy us.”

On October 16, 2023, in an official speech before the Israeli Knesset (parliament), he described the situation as “a struggle between the children of light and the children of darkness, between humanity and the law of the jungle,” a dehumanizing theme to which he returned on several occasions, including: on November 3, 2023, in a letter to Israeli soldiers and officers also published on the “X” platform (formerly Twitter); in the letter he stated:
that: "This is the war between the children of light and the children of darkness. We will not cease in our mission until light conquers darkness: good will conquer the extreme evil that threatens us and the entire world."

The Israeli Prime Minister also took up the theme in his “Christmas message,” stating: “We are facing monsters, monsters who murdered children in front of their parents (…). This is a battle not only of Israel against these barbarians, it is a battle of civilization against barbarism.” On October 28, 2023, as Israeli forces prepared their ground invasion of Gaza, the Prime Minister invoked the biblical story of the total destruction of Amalek by the Israelis, declaring: “You must remember what Amalek has done to you, our Holy Bible says. And we remember it.” The Prime Minister referred to Amalek again in the letter sent on November 3, 2023 to Israeli soldiers and officers. The relevant biblical passage reads as follows: “Now go, attack Amalek, and banish all that belongs to him. Spare no one, but kill equally men and women, children and infants, oxen and sheep, camels and donkeys.«.

– President of Israel: On October 12, 2023, President Isaac Herzog made it clear that Israel did not distinguish between militants and civilians in Gaza, declaring in a press conference to foreign media – in relation to the Palestinians in Gaza, more than a million of whom are children: “It is an entire nation that is responsible. This rhetoric that civilians are not aware that they are not involved is not true. It is absolutely false. … and we will fight until we break their backs.”
On October 15, 2023, echoing the words of Prime Minister Netanyahu, the president declared to the
foreign media that "we will uproot evil so that there is good for the entire region and the world."
The Israeli president is one of many Israelis who have handwritten "messages" on bombs that will be
launched on Gaza.

– Israeli Defense Minister: On October 9, 2023, Defense Minister Yoav Gallant, in an Israeli military “situation update,” reported that Israel was “imposing a total siege on Gaza. There is no electricity, no food, no water, no fuel. Everything is closed. We are fighting human animals and we are acting accordingly.” He also informed troops on the Gaza border that he had “released all restrictions,” stating in terms that: “Gaza will not be what it was before. We will remove everything. If it doesn’t take a day, it will take a week. It will take weeks or even months, we will reach all the places.” He further announced that Israel was moving toward “a full-scale response” and that it had “removed all restrictions” on Israeli forces.

– Israeli Minister of National SecurityOn November 10, 2023, Itamar Ben-Gvir clarified the government's position in a televised speech, stating: "To be clear, when we say that Hamas must be destroyed, it also means those who celebrate, those who support, and those who hand out candy: they are all terrorists and they must also be destroyed."

– Israeli Minister of Energy and Infrastructure: «Tweeting» on October 13, 2023, Israel Katz declared: «The entire civilian population of Gaza is ordered to leave immediately. We will win. They will not receive a single drop of water or a single battery until they leave the world.» On October 12, 2023, he «tweeted»: «Humanitarian aid to Gaza? No electric switch will be turned on, no hydrant will be opened, no fuel truck will enter until the Israeli hostages return home. Humanitarianism for humanitarianism's sake. And no one will lecture us on morality.»

– Israeli Finance Minister: On October 8, 2023, Bezalel Smotrich stated at an Israeli Cabinet meeting that “we have to strike a blow that has not been seen in 50 years and wipe out Gaza.”

– Israeli Minister of Heritage: On November 1, 2023, Amichai Eliyahu posted on Facebook: “The northern Gaza Strip, more beautiful than ever. Everything is blown up and flattened, just a pleasure for the eyes… We must talk about the day after. We will deliver plots to all those who fought for Gaza for years and to those evicted from Gush Katif” [a former Israeli settlement]. He later argued against humanitarian aid, as “we would not deliver humanitarian aid to the Nazis,” and “there are no uninvolved civilians in Gaza.” He also proposed a nuclear attack on the Gaza Strip.

– Israeli Minister of Agriculture: On November 11, 2023, Avi Dichter recalled in a television interview the Nakba of 1948, in which more than 80% of the Palestinian population of the new Israeli state was forced to leave or flee their homes, stating that “we are now carrying out the Nakba of Gaza.”

– Vice President of the Knesset and member of the Foreign Affairs and Security Committee: On October 7, 2023, Nissim Vaturi tweeted that: “We all now have a common goal: to wipe the Gaza Strip off the face of the earth. Those who cannot will be replaced.”

Similar statements have been made by Israeli army officers, advisors and spokespersons, as well as by others collaborating with Israeli troops deployed in Gaza:

– Coordinator of Government Activities in the Territories (“COGAT”) of the Israeli Army:
On October 9, 2023, in a video statement addressed to Hamas and Gaza residents, published by
On the official COGAT channel, Major General Ghassan Alian warned: “Hamas has become ISIS and the citizens of Gaza are celebrating this instead of being horrified. Human animals are treated accordingly. Israel has imposed a total blockade on Gaza, no electricity, no water, only damage. They wanted hell, they will have hell.”

– Israeli Army Reservist Major General, former Head of the Israeli National Security Council and advisor to the Minister of Defense: On October 7, 2023, Giora Eiland, describing the Israeli order to cut off water and electricity to Gaza, wrote in an online journal: “This is what Israel has started to do: we cut off the supply of energy, water and diesel to the Strip. . . But it is not enough. For the siege to be effective, we have to prevent others from giving aid to Gaza . . . The population must be told that they have two options: stay and starve, or leave. If Egypt and other countries prefer that these people perish in Gaza, that is their choice.” On the same day, he stated in a national newspaper that “when you are at war with another country, you cannot do anything about it. At war with another country, you do not feed them, you do not provide them with electricity, gas, water, or anything else. You can attack a country in a much broader way, to bring the country to the brink of dysfunction. This is the necessary outcome of the events” in Gaza.

He has repeatedly asserted the benefits to Israel of creating a humanitarian crisis in Gaza, declaring that “Israel has no interest in the Gaza Strip being rehabilitated and this is an important point to make clear to the Americans,” and that “if we ever want to see the hostages alive, the only way is to create a serious humanitarian crisis in Gaza.” He has indicated that water should be the target, noting that the water in Gaza “comes from wells with salt water unfit for consumption. They have water treatment plants, Israel should attack those plants. When the whole world says we have gone mad and this is a humanitarian disaster, we will say that it is not an end, but a means.” In an interview on Times radio on October 12, 2023, he reiterated that the military should:

“Creating such a huge pressure on Gaza that Gaza becomes an area where people cannot live. People cannot live until Hamas is destroyed, which means that Israel not only stops supplying energy, diesel, water, food… as it has done for the last twenty years… but it also prevents any possible help from third parties and creates in Gaza a situation so terrible and unbearable that the population cannot live. A terrible, unbearable situation that can last for weeks and months.”

Giora Eiland has repeatedly been given a media platform to call for Gaza to be made uninhabitable, stating that “the State of Israel has no choice but to make Gaza a place where it is temporarily, or permanently, unlivable.” In an interview on November 6, 2023, he suggested that “if there is an intention to carry out military action on Shifa [hospital], which I think is unavoidable, I hope that the head of the CIA will be given an explanation as to why this is necessary, and why the United States must ultimately support even such an operation, even if there are thousands of civilian bodies in the streets afterwards.”

He further proposed that “Israel needs to create a humanitarian crisis in Gaza, forcing tens of thousands or even hundreds of thousands to seek refuge in Egypt or the Gulf . . . Gaza will become a place where no human being can exist.” Echoing President Herzog’s words, he has repeatedly stressed that there should be no distinction between Hamas fighters and Palestinian civilians, saying:

«Who are the poor women In Gaza? They are all mothers, sisters or wives of Hamas murderers. On the one hand, they are part of the infrastructure that supports the organization and, on the other hand, if they suffer a humanitarian disaster, it is reasonable to assume that some of the Hamas fighters and the lower-ranking commanders will begin to understand that war is useless… The international community warns us of a humanitarian disaster in Gaza and of serious epidemics. We must not shy away from this, however difficult it may be. After all, serious epidemics in the south of the Gaza Strip will bring victory closer… It is precisely their civil collapse that will bring the end of the war closer. When Israeli officials say in the media, 'Either us or them,' we should clarify the question of who 'they' are. They are not only the armed Hamas fighters, but also all 'civilian' officials, including hospital and school administrators, as well as the entire population of Gaza. "Also the entire population of Gaza who enthusiastically supported Hamas and cheered its atrocities on October 7."

– Motivational speech by an Israeli army reservist: On October 11, 2023, Israeli Army reservist Ezra Yachin – a veteran of the Deir Yassin massacre during the 1948 Nakba – called up to “boost the morale” of Israeli troops ahead of the ground invasion, was quoted on social media, inciting other soldiers to genocide as follows, while being driven in an Israeli army vehicle dressed in an Israeli army uniform:

“Succeed, finish them off, and leave no one behind. Erase their memory. Erase them, their families, mothers and children. These animals cannot live any longer. . . Every Jew with a gun must go out and kill them. If you have an Arab neighbor, don’t wait, go to his house and shoot him. . . We want to invade, not like before, we want to go in and destroy what is in front of us, and destroy the houses, and then destroy the one behind. With all our strength, complete destruction, go in and destroy. As you can see, we will witness things we have never dreamed of. Let them drop bombs on them and wipe them out.”

– Head of the Air Operations Group of the Israeli Army: On October 28, 2023, Lt. Col. Gilad Kinan described the Air Force as “working together with all the IDF (Israeli Army) bodies when the goal is clear: to destroy everything that has been touched by the hand of Hamas.”

– Commander of the 2908th Battalion of the Israeli Army: In a video posted online on December 21, 2023, Yair Ben David claimed that the Israeli army had “entered Beit Hanun and did there the same thing that Simeon and Levi did in Nablus,” and that “all of Gaza should look like Beit Hanun,” referring to the northern Gaza city that has been totally devastated by the Israeli army… The biblical passage in question reads: “On the third day, when they were in pain, Simeon and Levi, two of Jacob's sons, Dinah's brothers, each took his sword, entered the city unmolested, and killed all the males.«.

* * *

The above statements by Israeli political and military officials indicate, by themselves, a clear intention to destroy the Palestinians of Gaza as a group. They also constitute a clear, direct and public incitement to genocide, which has remained uncontrolled and unpunished. The clear inference from the Israeli military's actions on the ground - including the huge number of civilian deaths and injuries, as well as the magnitude of the displacement, destruction and devastation caused in Gaza - is that these genocidal declarations are being carried out against the Palestinian people. That is also the clear and necessary deduction that emerges from the evidence being obtained from Israeli Army soldiers serving in Gaza:

– Israeli army colonel, deputy head of COGAT: In a video filmed in Beit Lahia – one of the areas of Gaza that appears to have suffered particularly severe levels of destruction – and broadcast on Israeli television on 4 November 2023, Colonel Yogev Bar Sheshet declared: “Whoever comes back here, if he comes back later, he will find scorched earth. No houses, no agriculture, nothing. They have no future”; another army colonel filmed in
In the same video, Colonel Erez Eshel also commented that: “Revenge is a great value. There is revenge for what they did to us… This place will be fallow land. They will not be able to live here.”

– Israeli army soldiers: Israeli soldiers in uniform have been filmed on December 5, 2023
dancing, chanting and singing “let their village burn, let Gaza be wiped out.” Two days later, on another occasion inside Gaza, on December 7, 2023, dancing, singing and chanting “we know our motto: there are no uninvolved civilians” and “wipe out the seed of Amalek.”

It is noteworthy that the second video of soldiers chanting that there are “no uninvolved citizens” in Gaza and that they will “erase the seed of Amalek” was filmed on December 7, 2023. By that date, 17.177 Palestinians had been killed in Gaza, of whom an estimated 70% were women and children.

December 7 and 8, 2023, were especially devastating for the Palestinians, as 350 people died in the space of 24 hours, approximately one Palestinian killed in Gaza every four minutes.

This genocidal rhetoric from government and military officials is also widespread and common among non-cabinet members of the Israeli Knesset, who have repeatedly called for Gaza to be “annihilated,” “flattened,” “erased,” and “crushed… on all its inhabitants.” The MPs have publicly deplored that anyone “feels sorry” for “uninvolved” Gazans, repeatedly stating that “there are no uninvolved,” that “there are no innocents in Gaza,” that “the murderers of women and children should not be separated from the citizens of Gaza,” that “the children of Gaza have brought it on themselves,” and that “there should be one sentence for everyone there: death.” The MPs have stated that “we must not forget that even innocent citizens, the cruel and monstrous inhabitants of Gaza took an active part… there is no place for any humanitarian gesture – the memory of Amalek must be protested,” and that “without hunger and thirst among the population of Gaza, we will not be able to recruit collaborators.” The MPs also called for "merciless" aerial bombing, the use of nuclear weapons ("doomsday"), and a "Nakba that eclipses that of '48."

Similar genocidal rhetoric is also common in Israeli civil society, with genocidal messages routinely disseminated – uncensored and unpunished – in Israeli media. The media calls for Gaza to be “obliterated,” turned into a “slaughterhouse,” that “Hamas must not be eliminated” but that “Gaza must be razed,” with the repeated claim that “there are no innocents… There is no population. There are 2,5 million terrorists.”

One local official reportedly called for Gaza to be “desolated and destroyed” like the Auschwitz museum, “demonstrating the madness of the people who lived there.” Former members of parliament have called for a level of destruction similar to that of Dresden and Hiroshima, saying that “Gaza must be destroyed,” that it would be “immoral” for the Israeli army not to be “vindictive and cruel.” In an interview on Israeli news, one former MP called for all Palestinians in Gaza to be killed, saying:

«I tell you that in Gaza, without exception, they are all terrorists, sons of bitches. We must exterminate them, kill them all. We will crush Gaza, turn them into dust, and the army will clean up the area. Then we will start building new areas, for ourselves, above all, for our security.»

These statements by prominent members of Israeli society - including former parliamentarians and news anchors - constitute a clear direct and public incitement to genocide, which the Israeli authorities have failed to control or punish. That this sentiment appears to be so widespread in Israeli society is particularly worrying given that the soldiers stationed in Gaza are largely reservists drawn from and informed by civil society.