We are on the brink of a genocide of Palestinians in Gaza, as defined in international law. We cannot wait until afterwards and then say "never again". Never more is right now.
Last night there were reports that a hospital in Gaza had been bombed, with hundreds of deaths as a result and during the evening a war of words broke out where Hamas blamed Israel and Israel in turn said it was a failed rocket launch from the Palestinian armed group Islamic Jihad. What has happened is not yet clear.
About half an hour before the news of the hospital bombing broke, a webinar on the situation in Gaza ended, where a number of genocide experts discussed whether the ongoing development of events lives up to the definition of genocide as defined in international law. Under the title Gaza on the brink: Israel's genocidal intent, Noura Erakat, human rights lawyer and professor at Rutgers University, brought together experts with different approaches to the issue.
The question of whether Israel's oppression of Palestinians can be said to constitute genocide has been debated before. There has been no consensus on the matter. There is a greater consensus that Israel violates international law and commits war crimes.
School examples of genocideBut now more and more researchers in genocide studies believe that the term must be used. Last week, over 800 scholars in international law, conflict studies and genocide studies signed a statement warning that Israel's actions potentially constitute genocide.
Israeli historian and genocide expert Raz Segal calls the ongoing situation "a textbook example of genocide."
The acts enumerated in the Genocide Convention are: to kill members of the group, to inflict grievous bodily or mental harm on members of the group, to deliberately impose living conditions on the group intended to bring about its physical destruction, to carry out measures intended to prevent the birth of children within the group and to forcibly transfer children from the group to another group.
The first three are happening right now in Gaza through the indiscriminate bombing everywhere, even in areas people have been told to evacuate to, even on the roads there, as well as through the total blockade of water, food, medical supplies and fuel.
The acts must also, according to the convention, have been committed with the intention of completely or partially annihilating an ethnic, national, racial or religious group.
It was this intent that the seminar mostly focused on. They pointed to statements from representatives of the government and the military. Statements about erasing Gaza, flatten. Defense Minister Yoav Gallant, who said that "Gaza will never return to what it was, we will eliminate everything". Defense spokesman Daniel Hagari who specifically said the emphasis is on causing damage, not accuracy. Dehumanizing statements about human animals, monsters and Nazis.
Maha Abdalla, a human rights expert from the University of Antwerp, said that these shamelessly frank statements, together with the acts that cause such massive damage, clearly show that there is intent.
"Never again"Bosnian activist Arnesa Buljušmić-Kustura, who was a child during the siege of Sarajevo and devoted her life to raising awareness about the Srebrenica genocide and about genocide in general, saw many similarities between what preceded Srebrenica and the rhetoric in Israel today, although the there are also big differences.
She raised the expression "never again", which is used about the Holocaust, but points out that then the genocide happened in Srebrenica and in Rwanda. "We keep saying never again, but keep quiet when it happens. Then again to say never again. Now is the time to raise our voices. Never again means right now."
She also wanted to emphasize that this did not start last week. "In the last decade there has been an increasingly overt dehumanizing language. It lays the groundwork for genocide. Srebrenica did not happen out of thin air. It took years to build. The rhetoric is one of the most important steps."
Sweden has made two very lame efforts since Hamas's terrible massacres and Israel's terrible retaliation started. A statement by Tobias Billström, about Israel's right to defend itself, and a pause in aid to Palestine.
Billström said that "it is important that Israel's legitimate response takes place in accordance with the principles of international law". But when Israel, in its retaliation for Hamas massacres, violates international law, he says nothing.
The disaster is growing every day, but our government is shamefully silent.
A second NakbaNo calls for a ceasefire, no calls for the protection of civilians. The government refuses to object to the displacement of Palestinians. Our neighboring country Norway has at least managed to get rid of criticism of the blockade of water, food and medicine to Gaza. But Billström is silent.
A second Nakba is unfolding before our eyes. We are on the brink of genocide.
Sweden must act to stop the disaster.
During yesterday, Jewish activists also demonstrated outside the White House for US President Joe Biden to call for a ceasefire. To the Washington Post, Israeli-American Matan Arad-Neeman from the Ifnotnow network says: "Many of us are grieving, we have loved ones who have been killed or kidnapped. But we are also angry that our grief is being used as a weapon and that Israel is on the verge of carrying out a genocide of Palestinians in Gaza."
The massacre by Hamas was horrific. Compassion and grief over one abuse cannot be allowed to silence another.
Before the seminar, the organizers had been in contact with seven different journalists inside Gaza, to get a voice and testimony from the inside. They had lost contact with all of them and did not know how they were doing. Huda Abudagga, who is not in Gaza herself, but whose entire family is there, participated instead. She concluded with a desperate cry of distress from the people of Gaza:
"All they want is for the bombings to stop. Pray for them, and do something to stop the bombings."
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