This is a genocide

Amnesty International has officially declared that Israel is committing genocide in Gaza. The report has come just a few days before the UN International Day of Commemoration and Dignity of the Victims of the Crime of Genocide and of the Prevention of this Crime that falls on December 9. More than a year has passed, and people in Gaza have had no respite from constant bombing. More bombs have been dropped in Gaza than on Tokyo during World War II. Last October, the occupying entity dropped 18,000 tonnes of bombs on the tiny, besieged territory, which is about 1.5 times more explosive than the bombs dropped on Hiroshima, Japan. Israel’s use of banned weapons is also fairly documented. All of this is happening right in front of our eyes, and yet powerful nations are bent on saving their ally. To say that around 45,000 Palestinians have been killed in Gaza will be a deliberate injustice. Given intermittent communication blackouts in the territory, it is difficult for Gaza’s health authorities to give an accurate number of the dead. But most experts are of the view that the death toll has already passed the 100,000 mark.

And why wouldn’t it? Scores of schools, which have been turned into refugee shelters, have been bombed ruthlessly by Israel. Israeli troops have filmed themselves bombing entire residential blocks. Scores of Palestinian men have been detained, with no access to lawyers or no family visits. Is this what our legacy should be? Is that what future generations must learn about us – a bunch of people who were okay with genocide being livestreamed? All of this could have been avoided. In January, the International Court of Justice declared that South Africa’s claim that Israel is committing genocide was ‘plausible’. We are almost at the end of the year, and yet no effort has been made to protect the lives of Palestinians. America’s complicity in the entire episode has been nauseating. It deliberately sabotaged UN resolutions calling for a ceasefire in Gaza, shamelessly providing cover to a rogue state to carry out its genocidal fantasies. History will always remember American leaders’ smirks when they were confronted by people speaking up against the genocide.

Since October 2023, we have been mourning the loss of people we never met. We are witnessing the worst form of torture meted out against Palestinians. We watch in horror when Big Tech does whatever it can to ensure that articles/posts that honour these martyrs do not appear in web searches. All these measures, however, have been ineffective. The entire world now knows and has a report by a credible institution to prove that Israel ‘is’ committing genocide against the people of Gaza. It is perhaps too much to ask from indifferent leaders of the world, but we still hope to see Israel’s allies putting an end to this monstrosity. Now is the time to end occupation in Gaza, allowing people to return to their homes, and financially assisting them to rebuild their houses. Israel’s allies should also publicly apologise for their complicity. Nothing can make up for Palestinian losses. Nothing can ever be presented as compensation for depriving Palestinians of burying their dead. But we can take a few steps forward and at least try to make up for crimes committed against them.