Israeli Human Watch Groups Accuse Israel of Genocide in Gaza

Israel’s war against Palestinians in the tiny Gaza Strip is a frightening onslaught that has resulted in over 60,000 Palestinian deaths in 22 months of war. Yet the attack by Hamas against Israel on October 7, 2023, which prompted this war, lasted only one day and resulted in 1,200 Israeli deaths. As always, whenever Israelis and Palestinians take up arms against each other, the resulting carnage is that Palestinians usually suffer ten times or more casualties compared to Israeli casualties.

Many organizations, including the UN, allege that Palestinians in Gaza are dying of starvation. Yet Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu denies this.

Israeli Rights Groups Accuse Israel of Genocide

Amnesty International declared last December that Israel is guilty of genocide for its war in Gaza. Israel has been denying outside aid to Gazans, causing many to die.

Yesterday, two Jewish, human-rights groups in Israel declared that Israel is now guilty of committing genocide against Palestinians in Gaza. They are B’Tselem and Physicians for Human Rights Israel. Both released reports saying Israel was carrying out “coordinated, deliberate action to destroy Palestinian society in the Gaza strip.” The UN has guidelines to determine what genocide is, and that statement means genocide.

These two groups further stated, “The people of Gaza have been displaced, bombed and starved, left completely stripped of their humanity and rights. Israel’s actions have destroyed Gaza’s healthcare infrastructure in a manner that is both calculated and systematic.”

Many Nations Recognize Palestinian Statehood

A total of 147 of the UN’s 193 member states have declared in the past recognized a Palestinian state even though Palestinians do not have their own homeland which they can call their own state. Thus, these declarations have been hardly anything more than symbolic, although they psychologically bolster Palestinian aspirations for statehood.

The seven wealthiest and most advanced nations in the world, a group identified as G7, have never joined these 147 nations in declaring recognition of Palestinian statehood.

G7 Nations to Consider Recognition of Palestine

The G7 consists of Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, the U.K., and the U.S. This group meets regularly to discuss world matters. About six weeks ago, G7 met in Canada. However, the U.S. refused to join because it disagreed one of the subjects to be discussed, which was whether to declare its recognition of Palestinian statehood. This is a subject that has been discussed for decades and has never happened.

France is a hugely important nation regarding Middle East and North Africa matters due to France’s history of colonization there. France declared at that June meeting of G7 that it intended to soon declare its recognition of Palestinian statehood and more. France now says it will declare such recognition next month at a meeting of the UN General Assembly. This effort is being led by France’s President Emmanuel Macron, who has been the foremost European leader for years advocating for Palestinians. The UK’s new Prime Minister, Keir Starmer, has now announced that he is considering joining President Macron in declaring recognition of the State of Palestine as well.

Israel Says Such Recognition Rewards Terrorism

Netanyahu and other ministers in his coalition government argue against these European nations and others declaring their recognition of a Palestinian state by saying it would reward the terrorism Hamas in attacking Israel on October 7, 2023, which caused Israel to launch its ongoing war in Gaza.

I’m surprised I don’t read in the media what I think is the obvious and supreme argument against that allegation of rewarding terrorism. It is that this Israeli-Palestinian conflict has been going on for 77 years, thus since Israel became reestablished as a nation in 1948 (actually, the conflict is older than that), yet throughout all that time in which there was no war between Israel and Palestinians Israel continued its resistance against the creation of a Palestinian state. So, I think a reverse argument can be made which is this: nations not declaring their recognition of a Palestinian state rewards the status quo engineered all this time by Israel, that after 77 years there still is no Palestinian state.

[See Kermit’s book, Palestine Is Coming: The Revival of Ancient Philistia (1990), available at amazon.com and Wipf and Stock Pulblishers. It’s thesis is that end times biblical prophecies indicate there will be a Palestinian state, it will be located only in the coastal plain as a very enlarged Gaza Strip, and Israel will annex all of the West Bank.]