From The Final Call Newspaper

‘This is a textbook case of genocide As the slaughter of Palestinians continues, demands grow to hold Israel and the West accountable

By Brian E. Muhammad, Staff Writer
- November 14, 2023


Palestinians evacuate survivors after Israeli airstrikes on buildings in Deir al Balah, Gaza Strip, Nov. 7. Photo: AP Photo/Adel Hana


The Zionist State of Israel continues to exact excruciating collective punishment, ethnic cleansing, and genocide on the Palestinian people, charge human rights advocates, global activists, and international experts. As rivers of blood flow in Gaza and the West Bank at the hands of the occupying army and roguish Jewish settlers, legal experts have presented a legal brief showing how the U.S., Britain, and members of the collective West can face charges of complicity for aiding and abetting genocide, and not involving processes to stop it.

An emergency legal briefing paper titled “Israel’s Unfolding Crime of Genocide of the Palestinian People & U.S. Failure to Prevent and Complicity in Genocide” was issued on October 18 by The Center for Constitutional Rights (CCR).

“There is a plausible and credible case, based on powerful factual evidence, that Israel is attempting to commit, if not actively committing, the crime of genocide in the occupied Palestinian territory, and specifically against the Palestinian people in the Gaza Strip,” said the document’s introduction.

Some analysts said that whether Israel is actively or intending to engage in genocide, over the month of the current war, Israeli leaders’ rhetoric expressed an intention for it.
 



“You’ve had numerous statements from the most senior levels of the Israeli government … Israeli military … leading politicians from across the Israeli political spectrum … of parliament …. which are all indisputably genocidal in nature,” said Mouin Rabbani, a Middle East analyst.

“Regarding what Israel is actually doing, I think there is sufficient evidence to at least warrant an investigation by, for example, the International Criminal Court,” said Mr. Rabbani. He expressed doubt in the virility of the ICC which has been the focus of resentment and disappointment in the slowness of its chief Prosecutor Karim Khan to assertively act on the Palestinian question.

“But there does appear to be a growing number of authoritative specialists in not only international law, but specifically in genocide, who have been making statements, either that Israel is conducting itself with genocidal intent, or actually is already guilty of the crime,” said Mr. Rabbani.

Since the start of the present war, Israeli forces killed over 11,000 Palestinians under the pretext of completely obliterating Hamas, the Palestinian resistance group. Israel holds Hamas solely responsible for 1,400 Israelis killed and over 200 taken captive in the unprecedented Oct. 7 attack on occupier settlements.

Since the current war began, Israel doubled down on a 16-year blockade in Gaza by blocking food, water, and fuel from the area, forcing deadly interference in life-sustaining and life-saving functions of hospitals, desalination plants, and infrastructure, subsequently killing many. Israeli officials dismissed the carnage as collateral damage of an extreme degradation campaign to eliminate Hamas. However, analysts argue total eradication is unrealistic because Hamas exists throughout the Arab world.

Furthermore, it appears the only eradication in the war is ordinary Palestinians. War opponents argue the disproportionality of Palestinian civilian deaths is excessive. Some see it as another sign that what Israel—backed by America—is doing in the name of “erasing” Hamas is extermination, according to the Geneva Convention on Genocide.


Palestinians mourn their relatives killed in the Israeli bombardment of the Gaza Strip in Rafah, Tuesday, Nov. 7, 2023. (AP Photo/Hatem Ali)

It was the first human rights treaty adopted by the UN General Assembly in 1948 and is considered the foundation of the international human rights system. War opponents argue the disproportionality of Palestinian civilian deaths is excessive. Some see it as another sign that the real aim of Israel, in the name of “erasing” Hamas is Palestinian extermination, according to the Geneva Convention on Genocide.

The convention defines genocide as committing the following acts with the intent to destroy, in whole or in part, a national, ethnical, racial or religious group:

(a) Killing members of the group.

(b) Causing serious bodily or mental harm to members of the group.

(c) Deliberately inflicting on the group conditions of life calculated to bring about its physical destruction in whole or in part.

(d) Imposing measures intended to prevent births within the group.

(e) Forcibly transferring children of the group to another group.

Palestine, Israel, and the U.S. are signatories to the Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide, which obligates all 153 signatories to prevent and punish genocide. The convention criminalizes not just the commission of, but incitement, attempts to commit, and complicity in genocide.

The complicity of America and Western powers who fund and provide weaponry to Israel are complicit, say experts. Some cite the U.S. failure to use the leverage it holds to influence Israeli negative actions toward the Palestinians. Observers argue it’s absurd to push billions of U.S. taxpayer monies to Israel and act powerless to hold it accountable.

Palestine, Israel, and America are signatories to the Convention which obligates all 153 signatories to prevent and punish genocide. The Convention criminalizes not just the commission of, but incitement, attempts to commit, and complicity in genocide.

America and Western powers funding and providing weaponry to Israel renders them complicit in the crime of genocide, experts argue. Some cite the U.S. failure to use the leverage it holds to influence Israeli actions toward the Palestinians. Observers also argue it’s absurd to provide billions of U.S. taxpayer monies to Israel and act powerless to hold it accountable.

Washington has moved from its usual “see no evil, hear no evil” posture to a “see the evil but powerless to stop the evil” position, despite the annual $3.8 billion unconditional check it cuts for Tel Aviv. However, a wide range of voices are saying “enough is enough” and Israel must be held accountable. Advocates and change agents across the globe are calling America and Israel out.

The U.S. delivers lip profession toward Palestinians and notoriously shields Israel from body blows of criticism. The West allows the destruction of Gaza, the massacre of children, and the forced displacement of survivors.

The collective West is destroying its credibility because of its unconditional backing of the Israeli regime, according to some observers.

“Because of their support for the #GazaHolocaust, the collective West has lost the respect of the international community,” said Seyed Mohammad Marandi, political analyst and professor at the University of Tehran, in a Nov. 8 remark on X (Twitter).

“This unprecedented Israeli extermination of Gazans carried out live before the eyes of the world has only been made possible by these diabolical regimes,” he added.

“Those who survive the Gaza Holocaust are ethnically cleansed,” said Mr. Marandi. “NEVER FORGET: Both the holocaust and the ethnic cleansing are fully backed by the collective West,” he posted.

As Israel advanced its ground offensives in Gaza on Nov. 10, tanks and snipers surrounded several hospitals in Gaza, reported Al Jazeera. Health officials said Gaza’s al-Shifa Hospital—the largest—in Gaza City was attacked five times in less than 24 hours. The Zionist State alleges that Hamas houses a command center and underground tunnels at the site, which hospital officials and Hamas vehemently refute.

“This is false, these are utter lies,” Muhammad Abu Salmiya, director of al-Shifa told Al Jazeera. “This is a civilian hospital. We cater to more than 1.5 million Gazans,” he added.

“The Israeli occupation forces are fully aware that this is a totally safe area. They are certain that there is no command center or any tunnels under these hospitals,” Mr. Salmiya said.

On the same day, at least 50 Palestinians were killed after Israeli missiles and artillery pounded a Gaza school sheltering internally displaced people. In another incident, more injuries and fatalities occurred on the main road to southern Gaza, bombarded while Palestinians escaped Israeli attacks in the north.

“I can’t even count,” lamented one survivor. “The ones I brought to the hospital myself are five [martyrs],” he said. “I’m sure there are many more coming behind me.”

Al Jazeera reported that Israeli authorities assured people the Salah al-Din Road was a secure route to use. Another survivor said many were injured and killed where the missiles struck.

“We are helping our fellow Gazans … elders … disabled, women and children. The Israeli warplanes fired at women and children. Their bodies were cut in pieces; we cannot even collect what is left of them,” he said. “Why would you throw bombs at civilians after you specifically told them to leave Gaza City.”

International and humanitarian law gives comprehensive and detailed protection to civilians and specific institutions during war. Israel’s indiscriminate bloodshed and brutal blasting of prohibited targets like schools, mosques, churches, hospitals and homes is more than shock opera for terror’s sake. As far as war rules, Israel has outright violated the principles of distinction, proportionality and precaution and embarked on a widespread and systematic attack on Gaza’s civilian population, critics argue.

International experts say the extremity of Israeli attacks has been the modus operandi of the settler colonial state that lends to allegations of genocide. Although, the concept of genocide has been the subject of political abuse, say some international law experts, the mass slaughter of Palestinians leaves no ambiguity.

It is comparable to the roots of America as a settler colonial state that systematically removed the indigenous Native Americans from their lands onto marginalized reservations. It is also redolent to the same Europeans enslaving Africans and currently controlling them in colony-like ‘hoods throughout the U.S. under systematic oppression.

Israel in its settler colonial ideology practiced decades of systematic persecution and purging of Palestinians based entirely on their status as Arabs.

“In the West Bank, including occupied Jerusalem, homes are seized and reassigned based entirely on race, and violent settler pogroms are accompanied by Israeli military units. Across the land, apartheid rules,” said Craig Mokhiber, a human rights lawyer and former director of the New York Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights.

Palestinians inspect the damage of a destroyed mosque following an Israeli airstrike in Khan Younis refugee camp, southern Gaza Strip, Nov. 8. Photo: AP Photo/Mohammed Dahman

“This is a textbook case of genocide,” said Mr. Mokhiber, in an open resignation letter to the UN. He quitin angst over successive failures of the UN to end the “genocide unfolding before our eyes” by Israel. His letter expressed that the European, ethno-nationalist, settler colonial project in Palestine entered its final phase toward destroying the last remnants of indigenous Palestinian life in Palestine. What’s more, America, the UK, and much of Europe, are wholly complicit in the horrific assault, he argued.

“Not only are these governments refusing to meet their treaty obligations ‘to ensure respect’ for the Geneva Conventions, but they are in fact actively arming the assault, providing economic and intelligence support, and giving political and diplomatic cover for Israel’s atrocities,” wrote Mr. Mokhiber.

America professes to be the friend and defender of peace-loving and freedom-loving people. However, her unholy alliance with Israel, despite its repressive system against Palestinians shows her claim is false. Israel’s usurping land, apartheid control of movement, forceful removal, genocidal practice and bloodthirst toward Palestinians underwritten by America undermines the future of both nations. Both parties were warned by scriptures and Divine Warners that there is no favorable endgame.

The Holy Qur’an, the Islamic book of scripture, warns that those who do not heed good advice are doomed. The law of Moses condemns the unjust taking of lives. The Honorable Minister Louis Farrakhan along with his teacher, the Most Honorable Elijah Muhammad of the Nation of Islam warns that no individual nor nation can escape the law of justice today. Both Divine Servants of Allah (God) teach that the world is in the day of God’s Judgment and that the world is in a time when the consequences of deeds, individual and national, cannot be averted except if there is repentance.

In part 2 of his timely yearlong 2013 broadcast called, “The Time and What Must Be Done,” Minister Farrakhan discussed the moral compass that applies to the current U.S.-Israel-Palestine crisis. “I want our government to see the drones that have gone into Afghanistan; the ‘shock and awe’ of America’s bombers, and the bombs that fell in Iraq on the basis of a lie!” said Minister Farrakhan. “I want us to think about the drones that were in Pakistan, in Yemen, in Somalia—of the men, the women, the children that were slaughtered; of families destroyed,” he said.

“Do you think that only Americans know how to love their children? Only Americans feel the pain of loss of our children? No, no, no! Every human being on the Earth feels such loss … Yet, we can walk away from such slaughter, and call it ‘collateral damage’?” reasoned Minister Farrakhan.

Just as Americans feel the pain of watching children slaughtered in mass killings within America; Minister Farrakhan said we would feel the pain of the Iraqis, the Afghans, the Yemenis, the Somalis, and the Palestinians dying by American-made bombs. Each time Israel embarks on bombing campaigns America commits to “replace every bomb” that the Israeli Defense Forces dropped.

“Oh America, you are blinded, and that is why we must talk about ‘The Time and What Must Be Done!’ America will never have ‘enough’ ‘guns,’ ‘weapons of war’ to satiate her bloodlust,” said Minister Farrakhan.