Fact Based Politics; Israel is committing genocide in Gaza

In a recent YouTube live video, when asked about the genocide committed by Israel in Gaza, Ravichandran C denied this fact and claimed instead that Jews are the ones facing genocide. The video by Pratish, Alan and Rajesh provided a detailed response to his statements, countering his claims with evidence and analysis of the situation.

In later live, when asked about this issue, Ravi requested to provide “facts”. Even though the response video have enough facts, I thought of making a list with references. So here you go.

Fact 1: Amnesty International concludes Israel is committing genocide against Palestinians in Gaza 

Amnesty International is a global human rights organization. They investigate and report human rights abuses, pressure governments for change, and campaign for the protection of people at risk. They are considered credible source of information and their conclusion are based on detailed research and verified sources.

Their Verdict: This is Genocide!

They Also layout the reason why they think Israel is committing genocide against Palestinians in Gaza 

1. Unprecedented scale and magnitude : Israel carried out extensive destruction in Gaza, including repeated airstrikes, forced displacement of majority of the population, and decimation of critical infrastructure, leading to catastrophic humanitarian consequences. And they carried these at a level and speed not seen in any other conflict in the 21st century.
2. Intent to destroy : Amnesty International identified dehumanizing and genocidal statements by Israeli officials, verified audiovisual evidence, and military conduct designed to systematically eradicate Palestinian communities in Gaza.
3. Killing and causing serious bodily or mental harm : Israel’s indiscriminate airstrikes killed hundreds of civilians, including many children, and inflicted severe trauma and injury, with no evidence that these attacks targeted military objectives.
4. Inflicting conditions of life calculated to bring about physical destruction : Israel imposed a total blockade, cutting off electricity, water, and fuel, obstructing humanitarian aid, and forcing repeated displacements, exacerbating disease, hunger, and unlivable conditions.

Fact 2: The European Center for Constitutional and Human Rights, on Gaza and the matter of genocide concludes that Israel is committing genocide against the Palestinians in Gaza

The ECCHR (European Center for Constitutional and Human Rights) is an independent, non-profit legal and educational organization dedicated to enforcing civil and human rights worldwide providing legal support to victims of human rights abuses, conducting educational programs, and collaborating with other human rights organizations to address systemic injustices. It was founded in 2007 by Wolfgang Kaleck, a prominent human rights lawyer known for representing victims of military dictatorships and advocating for universal jurisdiction, along with other international human rights lawyers to protect and enforce the rights guaranteed by the UDHR (Universal Declaration of Human Rights), as well as other human rights declarations and national constitutions, through legal means.

Their Verdict: This is Genocide!

The reason they layout was:

1. Killing members of the group : At the latest count, over 44,249 Palestinians have been killed since 7 October 2023. The majority of these victims have been civilians, including at least 7,216 women, 13,319 children, and 3,447 elderly people. Additionally, it is estimated that more than 10,000 people are missing or under the rubble in Gaza.
2. Causing serious bodily or mental harm to members of the group : At the latest count, more than 104,746 Palestinians have been injured since 7 October 2023, in addition to the number of those killed. Palestinians have also suffered intense psychological harm as a result of witnessing the Israeli attacks and their devastating toll on life, limb and infrastructure. Living in constant fear and uncertainty, including around the ability to secure basic necessities, has also caused psychological distress. An estimated 90% of children in Gaza are in need of mental health and psychosocial support.
3. Deliberately inflicting on the group conditions of life calculated to bring about its physical destruction, in whole or in part : Israel has forcibly evacuated and displaced around 90 percent of Palestinians in Gaza, and has simultaneously failed to provide, and deliberately restricted, the provision of adequate shelter, clothes, hygiene or sanitation. This has caused widespread hunger, dehydration and starvation, the effect of which have been compounded by the destruction of medical infrastructure and lack of access to medicine in Gaza.
4. Imposing measures intended to prevent births within the group : Israel’s strikes and blockades in Gaza have resulted in a significant increase in miscarriages, stillbirths, and premature births, as well as deaths from preventable causes in both women and babies. Recently, the World Health Organization estimated that 15 percent of women giving birth in Gaza are likely to experience complications.

Fact 3: Human Rights Watch concludes that Israeli authorities have purposely made life in Gaza miserable that caused the destruction of Palestinians.

Human Rights Watch investigates and exposes human rights abuses globally. By sharing the stories of those affected and pressuring governments to enforce rights-respecting laws, the organization aims to bring about meaningful policy changes and justice for victims.

Their Verdict: This is Genocide!

The main reason Human Rights Watch point out was that Israel Deliberately Depriving Palestinians in Gaza of Water

The World Health Organization (WHO) states that a person requires 50 to 100 liters of water per day to meet basic needs. Between October 2023 and September 2024, Israeli authorities took actions like:

1. Cutting off and Restricting Water, Electricity, and Fuel : Israel cut off water being piped into Gaza from Israel, which accounted for about 12 percent of Gaza’s total water supply and more than half of its drinking water.
2. Blocking Water-Related Aid : Israeli authorities have also significantly restricted humanitarian aid from entering Gaza, prevented aid deliveries to different areas within Gaza at various times, and have specifically blocked supplies related to water treatment and production.
3. Destruction of Water Infrastructure : Israeli forces deliberately attacked and damaged or destroyed several major WASH facilities, including four of the Gaza Strip’s six wastewater treatment plants and an important water reservoir supplying water to people in Rafah in southern Gaza
4. Obstruction of Repairs and Attacks on Water Workers : Israeli forces have also attacked and killed water workers while they were carrying out repairs and other activities to bring the population more water, and have destroyed materials needed for water repairs.

Because of this, most of the 2 million people living in Gaza do not have enough water. This has caused many deaths and the spread of serious diseases. Doctors and nurses told Human Rights Watch that they had seen numerous infants, children, and adults die from a combination of malnutrition, dehydration, and disease.

Fact 4: The Lemkin Institute for Genocide Prevention calls the Israeli Attack on Gaza Genocide

The Lemkin Institute for Genocide Prevention (LIGP), or Lemkin Institute, is a group that works in many countries and is based in the United States. Its goal is to identify and prevent genocide. The Institute says that genocide is not just one event but a process that can be broken down into ten patterns.

Their Verdict: This is Genocide!

Fact 5: UN Special Committee finds Israel’s warfare methods in Gaza consistent with genocide, including use of starvation as weapon of war

I guess I don’t need to introduce on what’s United Nations and what it does.

Their Verdict: This is Genocide!

These are the statements by the Committee:

“Since the beginning of the war, Israeli officials have publicly supported policies that strip Palestinians of the very necessities required to sustain life — food, water, and fuel,”

“Through its siege over Gaza, obstruction of humanitarian aid, alongside targeted attacks and killing of civilians and aid workers, despite repeated UN appeals, binding orders from the International Court of Justice and resolutions of the Security Council, Israel is intentionally causing death, starvation and serious injury, using starvation as a method of war and inflicting collective punishment on the Palestinian population,”

“By destroying vital water, sanitation and food systems, and contaminating the environment, Israel has created a lethal mix of crises that will inflict severe harm on generations to come,”

“This deliberate silencing of reporting, combined with disinformation and attacks on humanitarian workers, is a clear strategy to undermine the vital work of the UN, sever the lifeline of aid still reaching Gaza, and dismantle the international legal order,”

“It is the collective responsibility of every State to stop supporting the assault on Gaza and the apartheid system in the occupied West Bank, including East Jerusalem,”

Fact 6: Human Rights expert finds reasonable grounds genocide is being committed in Gaza

Francesca Albanese is a Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in the Palestinian territories. She worked for a decade as a human rights expert for the United Nations. In her report entitled ‘Anatomy of a Genocide’, she concluded that “There are reasonable grounds to believe that the threshold indicating the commission of the crime of genocide…has been met.” 

Her Verdict: This is Genocide!

I. Genocidal Acts in Gaza

1. Killing of Palestinians
2. Causing serious bodily or mental harm to Palestinians
3. Deliberately inflicting on the Palestinians conditions of life calculated to bring about its physical destruction in whole or in part

II. Genocidal Intent

1. Multiple dehumanizing statements by Israeli officials
2. Genocidal rhetorics painting the whole population as the enemy to be eliminated and forcibly displaced

III. Humanitarian camouflage: Distorting the laws of war to conceal genocidal intent

1. Saying Hamas is using civilians as Human Shields to justify high civilian casualties and attacks against paramedics, journalists
2. Turning Gaza as a whole into a ‘military objective’ by de facto abolishing the distinction between civilian objects (Homes, schools, hospitals, Markets, civilian infrastructure) and military objectives (Military bases, fortifications, and supply depots, Weapons, ammunition, and military vehicles)
3. Indiscriminate killing as “collateral damage”
4. Permanently displacing people in the name of evacuations and safe zones.
5. Medical Shielding: Similar to human shielding, saying Hamas is operating in hospitals so that they can destroy hospitals and other medical infrastrucrtures.

Read her anatomy of a genocide article where she listed multiple instances for the reason listed above.

Fact 7: Israeli Historian and Genocide Scholar Amos Goldberg said “Yes, it is genocide”

Amos Goldberg is Holocaust and genocide researcher at the Hebrew University. Goldberg has published widely on The Holocaust, and was the editor of the journal Dapim: Studies on the Holocaust. He wrote an article in Hebrew titled “Yes, It Is a Genocide” in a magazine called Sicha Mekommit, which means ‘Local Call’. It was then translated into English and circulated widely.

His Verdict: This is Genocide!

In most cases of genocide, from Bosnia to Namibia, from Rwanda to Armenia, the perpetrators of the murder said they were acting in self-defence. The fact that what is happening in Gaza does not resemble the Holocaust, does not mean that it is not genocide

– Amos Goldberg

Fact 8: Israeli Genocide Scholar Raz Segal calls Israel’s assault on Gaza “a textbook case of genocide”

Raz Segal is an Israeli historian, Associate Professor of Holocaust and Genocide Studies and Endowed Professor in the Study of Modern Genocide at Stockton University. The name of the article itself is “A Textbook Case of Genocide”. He concluded the article by saying “Israel’s goal is to destroy the Palestinians of Gaza. And those of us watching around the world are derelict in our responsibility to prevent them from doing so”

His Verdict: This is Genocide!

Israel has been explicit about what it’s carrying out in Gaza. Why isn’t the world listening?

– Raz Segal

Fact 9: American Genocide Scholar Ronald Grigor Suny said “Israeli assault on Gaza is genocidal and should be recognized as such”

Ronald Grigor Suny is an American-Armenian historian, political scientist and a scholar of genocide. He author of a book on the Armenian Genocide, “They Can Live in the Desert but Nowhere Else”: A History of the Armenian Genocide (Princeton University Press, 2015). In his article in the nations titled “Genocide in Real Time”, he said, “it is evident to me that the Israeli assault on Gaza—along with the permissiveness that the Netanyahu government allows for Jewish settlers in the West Bank, aided by the Israeli army and police to carry out violence and dispossessions against Palestinians—is genocidal and should be recognized as such.”

His Verdict: This is Genocide!

As an American, I share the deep sorrow that comes from knowing that the country in which I was born and have lived is complicit in this horrific crime against humanity, which must unambiguously be condemned as genocide.

– Ronald Grigor Suny

Fact 10: Expert Declaration by Holocaust and Genocide Scholars Victoria Sanford, Barry Trachtenberg, and John Cox Supports Lawsuit and declared Gaza Crisis as Genocide

On November 13, the Center for Constitutional Rights filed a lawsuit against President Joe Biden, Secretary of State Antony Blinken, and Secretary of Defense Lloyd J. Austin III. The lawsuit says these leaders are helping Israel genocide against Gaza. A lawsuit was filed in a federal court in San Francisco on behalf of Palestinians. The lawsuit wants the U.S. to stop giving weapons, money, and support to Israel because they believe Israel is committing genocide in Gaza.

As part of the case, three experts on genocide and the Holocaust—Victoria Sanford, Barry Trachtenberg, and John Cox—made an official statement. They said what is happening in Gaza fits the definition of genocide according to international law.

Victoria Sanford is a Professor of Anthropology and a Genocide Scholar. She has written extensively on genocide and state violence in Latin America, especially in the case of Guatemala. She has given expert testimony on the Guatemalan genocide in international courts.

Barry Trachtenberg is a historian, Jewish History and Genocide Scholar. He also published many work on Holocaust.

John Cox is a tenured Associate Professor of History and Global Studies at University of North Carolina, Charlotte and directs the Center for Holocaust, Genocide & Human Rights Studies

Their Verdict: This is Genocide!

Why should we agree all these reputable organizations and genocide scholars?

Answer is simple, they are the experts in this matter. If you want more explanation listen to none other than our “expert on everything”, Prof. Ravichandran C in this video on Appeal to Authority

Conclusion

As I start looking up more about the genocide issue and more “facts” on the matter, my conviction only grew stronger to a point where I think anyone who disagree that its genocide is either a bigot or outright ignorant unless you live in a place were you are politically forced to tell nothing against Israel. Based on the facts presented earlier, the ongoing situation for Palestinians clearly meets the criteria for genocide, with actions by Israel contributing to this outcome. Now a certain Fact based politics teams may outright reject all these facts by all these reliable organizations and genocide scholars, and they will quote back Zionist propagandas as “facts”, these people are no different from bigots.

I’m ending my blog with the slogan: “From the river to the sea, Palestine will be free.”