{"id":38024,"date":"2024-12-06T20:47:30","date_gmt":"2024-12-07T04:47:30","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/?p=38024"},"modified":"2024-12-06T20:47:31","modified_gmt":"2024-12-07T04:47:31","slug":"amnesty-international-concludes-that-israel-is-committing-genocide-in-gaza","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/2024\/12\/06\/amnesty-international-concludes-that-israel-is-committing-genocide-in-gaza\/","title":{"rendered":"AMNESTY INTERNATIONAL CONCLUDES THAT ISRAEL IS COMMITTING GENOCIDE IN GAZA"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

In a new 300-page report, the human rights group joins a growing chorus of legal scholars and activists describing Israel\u2019s assault on Palestinians as genocide.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Jessica Washington<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

December 4 2024, 7:01 p.m. (TheIntercept.com)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"KHAN<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

A view of destroyed buildings in al-Manera neighborhood after Israeli airstrikes in Khan Yunis, Gaza, on Oct. 25, 2024. Photo: Abed Rahim Khatib\/Anadolu via Getty Images<\/p>\n\n\n\n

ON THE MORNING<\/strong> of December 14, 2023, an Israeli airstrike killed three generations of Ahmad Nasman\u2019s family in Gaza. In a single blow, his wife, three children, parents, and sister were gone. It would be days before Nasman would find the body of his 3-month-old daughter, Ayla, under the rubble. His eldest daughter, Arwa, only 5 years old, was decapitated in the blast.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cMy body survived but my spirit died with my children,\u201d said Nasman. \u201cIt was crushed under the rubble with them.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The airstrike, which hit a three-story building in Rafah, killed an estimated 31 Palestinians \u2014 most of whom had fled south from Gaza City in search of safety and shelter. In the months that followed, thousands of Palestinian parents would come to share Nasman\u2019s grief, as the death toll surpassed 44,000.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The December strike was one of 15 incidents researchers at Amnesty International thoroughly investigated over the last year, as part of a sprawling study of Israel\u2019s war effort since October 2023. At nearly 300 pages, the report<\/a> makes a definitive finding: Israel is committing genocide in Gaza. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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\u201cIt is a repeated pattern across Gaza across the last 14 months.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThe conclusion could not be clearer,\u201d said Nadia Daar, chief strategy and impact officer for Amnesty International USA, \u201cthat a genocide has been taking place in Gaza, and that a genocide is continuing in Gaza, and all states must do everything to prevent and to punish the genocide that is happening in Gaza.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIt\u2019s not just one incident, it\u2019s not just, you know, one family or one hospital. It is a repeated pattern across Gaza across the last 14 months,\u201d Daar added. \u201cIt is chilling when you put the whole picture together as this report does, and it is a stain on humanity.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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The report\u2019s Wednesday release comes at a time of increased global scrutiny of Israel\u2019s assault on Gaza. Two weeks ago, the International Criminal Court announced arrest warrants for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and former Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant for war crimes and crimes against humanity in Gaza. President Joe Biden called the warrants \u201coutrageous\u201d and Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., threatened sanctions against the ICC. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Even ahead of the report\u2019s official release, right-wing backers <\/a>of Israel tore into<\/a> Amnesty International, accusing<\/a> it of a \u201chistory of antisemitism\u201d and knocking the conclusion of genocide. The internationally renowned rights organizations faced a similar bevy of attacks in 2022, when it joined other human rights groups, including Human Rights Watch, in calling Israel an \u201capartheid\u201d state<\/a>. Israeli officials swiftly condemned the report as \u201cfalse, biased, and antisemitic.\u201d Amnesty International \u201cis just another radical organization which echoes propaganda, without seriously checking the facts,\u201d said<\/a> Yair Lapid, then Israeli foreign minister, at the time. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Like Amnesty\u2019s apartheid report, the finding of genocide comes long after scholars<\/a>, activists, and Israel\u2019s Palestinian victims had reached the same conclusion themselves. As far back as January, the International Court of Justice found that Israel was \u201cplausibly<\/a>\u201d committing genocide. Still, advocates are hopeful that this report from a widely respected group like Amnesty International will help to move the needle forward in conversations about Gaza. Not only will it force people in the United States to grapple directly with the fact that the U.S. is complicit in a genocide, but it also gives people the authority to speak plainly and truthfully about what\u2019s happening in Gaza. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIt\u2019s obvious to anyone you know who\u2019s been even paying cursory attention here that it\u2019s a genocide,\u201d said Samer Araabi, a member of the Arab Resource and Organizing Center, a Bay Area advocacy organization. \u201cBut you know, the way our systems work, we need that independently confirmed by experts.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n

He continued, \u201cI feel quite confident that this will give other people \u2026 the perspective that they need, or, the sort of authoritative backing they may require to be able to call this what it is.\u201d Read Our Complete CoverageIsrael\u2019s War on Gaza<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

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The report includes 15 separate in-depth investigations and is based on interviews with over 200 people, including Palestinian survivors, local authorities in Gaza, and health care workers. The Amnesty researchers also conducted fieldwork in Gaza and analyzed an extensive range of visual and digital evidence, including satellite imagery, and analyzed statements made by senior Israeli officials.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

They did not reach the conclusion of genocide lightly, said Daar. \u201cDoing a report to investigate the case of genocide is complex, but it\u2019s not impossible,\u201d she said. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe hope that people will understand this is not just a word, it\u2019s not just a term, it is based on legal evidence,\u201d she added. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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The report notes that Israel had carried out \u201crelentless\u201d aerial and ground attacks flattening entire neighborhoods and critical infrastructure, including hospitals, killing tens of thousands of Palestinians, and in many cases wiping out entire multigenerational families. In addition to the devastating impacts of Israel\u2019s military campaign, the report also found that Israel had deliberately obstructed<\/a> or denied<\/a> the import of humanitarian aid<\/a> and other lifesaving supplies to a displaced and starving population. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Mohammed Salama, director of the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit at the Emirates Red Crescent hospital in Rafah, spoke to Amnesty\u2019s researchers about the critical health care situation in the besieged enclave. \u201cAs other hospitals in the south went out of service, we became the only hospital equipped with incubators, and most of the Gaza Strip was displaced here [in Rafah],\u201d he said. \u201cAt times, we had to place five newborns and young children in one incubator and following the spread of neonatal sepsis like wildfire, we had to ask mothers to cradle their babies on the floor.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The researchers looked at not only the actions of Israeli officials, but also their intent. In addition to analyzing direct statements <\/a>from Israeli officials, Daar said, the group also focused on patterns of behavior from the Israeli military in Gaza since October 7. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe saw repeated patterns of indiscriminate attacks against civilians. We saw repeated patterns of displacement into unsafe conditions. We saw repeated attacks on civilian infrastructure and infrastructure that is needed for survival, including hospitals, for example. We saw the repeated \u2014 over and over and over \u2014 repeated denial and blockage of aid into Gaza by Israeli officials,\u201d she said. \u201cSo those patterns are really, really important here.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The widespread destruction in Gaza was another factor that helped establish intent. \u201cThat scale, that level and speed of damage,\u201d said Daar, \u201cwe have not seen any other conflict in the 21st century.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Araabi, the Bay Area activist, hopes that the report will force people in the United States to grapple with this country\u2019s role, given that the U.S. government has provided near-unconditional military, political, and diplomatic support to Israel.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI think people have a hard time reconciling the idea of our complicity with a crime as serious as genocide. And, there\u2019s a real desire to not look that in the face. But I think one of the good things about this report is it\u2019s going to force us to do that and recognize the fact that we are, in fact, as taxpayers in this country, complicit in in a genocide,\u201d said Araabi. \u201cSo I think it\u2019s really important that we face the consequences of that, and we really sit with the discomfort of that.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n

As for attacks from Israeli officials and their allies on Amnesty International and other rights groups, Araabi said that proves that human rights advocates\u2019 messages are breaking through to the public. \u201cI think Israel and its apologists are in full on panic mode,\u201d he said. \u201cIt\u2019s hard to interpret it as anything but that. The repression and the attacks that anti-war movements are facing right now, I think, is a clear indication that the enablers of this genocide are seeing a real existential threat to their project.\u201dShare<\/p>\n\n\n\n

CONTACT THE AUTHOR:<\/a><\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Jessica Washington<\/a>jessica.washington@theintercept.com<\/a>@jessica_m_wash<\/a>on X<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

In a new 300-page report, the human rights group joins a growing chorus of legal scholars and activists describing Israel\u2019s assault on Palestinians as genocide. Jessica Washington December 4 2024, 7:01 p.m. (TheIntercept.com) A view of destroyed buildings in al-Manera neighborhood after Israeli airstrikes in Khan Yunis, Gaza, on Oct…. Continue reading → <\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/38024"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=38024"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/38024\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":38025,"href":"http:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/38024\/revisions\/38025"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=38024"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=38024"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=38024"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}