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Preface

Last updated: June 18, 2024

 

I, Lee Mordechai, a historian and an Israeli citizen, bear witness in this document, as events are unfolding, to the horrible situation in the Gaza Strip. I write my personal opinion out of a sense of double responsibility: as a citizen whose country is committing what I consider as grave crimes, and as an academic, who believes that after having dedicated my career so far to research and teaching others I am obliged to speak up against injustice, especially when it is so close. I write also because of the disappointing general silence on this issue among many international and Israeli academic institutions, especially those that are well-positioned to comment on it. The relatively few of my colleagues who have bravely spoken out have been an inspiration.1 I do not believe this document will convince many others to change their minds. Rather, I write this publicly to testify that during the war there were and remain Israeli voices who strongly dissented from Israel’s actions.

The latest version of this document can be found on my academia.edu and Twitter pages, which have both English and Hebrew versions. Older versions appear on my Twitter page. I plan to continue to revise this document every several weeks.

On 7 October 2023, Hamas and other militants attacked Israel. In the assault about 1,150 people, most of whom were civilians, were killed. The vast majority of these were killed by Hamas and other militants, and the small remainder were killed by friendly fire in the general chaos. About 250 people, mostly Israeli civilians, were taken hostage to Gaza. These atrocities are war crimes and crimes against humanity. Many others have already written about these events in the international and Israeli media and I do not have much new to add on this matter for now. The horrible events of 7 October – themselves committed as part of a historical context that returns to the longstanding conflict between Israel and the Palestinians – initiated the current war that is the context for this document.

Despite Hamas’ aforementioned atrocities, I believe Israel’s response to the events of Oct. 7 over the past half year continues to be wholly disproportionate, immoral and criminal. My position on these matters represents a tiny minority in Israeli society. In polls on this issue only 1.8% (October), 7% (December), 3.2% (January) and 4% (March-April) of Jewish Israelis believed the IDF (Israel Defense Forces) was using too much firepower in Gaza or that Israel’s military response has gone too far.2 In March, 81% of Israelis believed that Israel was doing everything possible to minimize harm towards Gazan civilians (including 19% who thought Israel was doing too much),3 and 80% of Israeli Jews believed that Israel should not consider the suffering of Gazans as it conducted its military operation.4 An April poll found that only a third of Israeli Jews thought that Israel should accept the UN’s Security Council demand for a ceasefire during Ramadan.5 As of writing, the war continues despite the fact that high-placed voices within Israel6 as well as the US7 believe that Israel’s Prime Minister wants to prolong the war for his own political survival, misleading the Israeli public into believing that a complete victory is possible.8

The evidence I have seen and describe below has been sufficient for me to believe that what Israel is currently doing to the Palestinian population in Gaza is a crime against humanity9 that is consistent with the definition of genocide as I understand it.10 A recent (Jan. 26) International Court of Justice Order found that Israel’s actions could plausibly be argued to be genocide,11 as experts have pointed out before12 and after13 the Order – including both action and intent.10 Subsequent professional analyses of a UN Special Rapporteur and academic centers for Human Rights reached the same conclusion.14 A federal judge in California ruled the Israel’s actions are “plausibly” genocide.15 An Independent International Committee of the UN Human Rights Council concluded that Israel’s actions consist of war crimes and crimes against humanity, including extermination and ethnic cleansing that were conducted with intent.16 I discuss my specific reasoning for using the term genocide to describe Israel’s actions in an appendix to this document.

Since the situation in the Gaza Strip continued to deteriorate in February and March,17 the UN Security Council has passed a resolution demanding “an immediate ceasefire” in Gaza in late March.18 This was followed by additional ICJ provisional measures three days later, calling upon Israel to ensure aid deliveries, basic services and humanitarian assistance to Palestinians in Gaza.19 As of writing, Israel has not changed its policy in a substantive manner since these decisions even if the rate of killing has decreased due to the general slowdown of the active fighting in the war.

Israel’s conduct during the war has repeatedly and systematically destroyed existing laws and norms that aimed to regulate “civilized” warfare in recent decades.20 As discussed throughout this document, the UN Security Council has demanded an immediate ceasefire: Israel refused. The ICJ has obligated Israel to allow the delivery of humanitarian aid: Israel refused. International humanitarian law states that it is illegal to use the starvation of civilian populations as a form of warfare: Israel has been doing this for months. Indiscriminate bombing is similarly illegal yet practiced by Israel since the beginning of the war. Bombing hospitals is illegitimate – and yet Israel bombed every hospital in Gaza (as well as assassinated patients in a West Bank hospital). Embassies are supposed to be off-limits, and yet Israel bombed a foreign embassy (Iran) in a different country (Syria).21 The widespread destruction of civilian infrastructure is illegal: Israel continues to do so today. The widespread use of AI is extremely controversial (has not been regulated yet)22: Israel did so matter-of-factly, while almost completely trusting the results of an automatic system for identifying targets.

 

 

Context

The Gaza Strip is a tiny piece of land, consisting of some 365 square kilometers, less than half the size of New York City and less than a quarter the size of London. Its population is about 2.3 million, making it one of the most densely populated areas on the planet.23 About 70% of the population descend from refugees who fled Mandatory Palestine to Gaza during the 1948 war (“Nakba”).24 In 2022, poverty levels in Gaza reached 65%, while unemployment was 45%.25 Israel controls Gaza’s borders, communications, electricity, water and even population registry.26 It continuously surveils Gazans’ movements and their communications, including all phone calls and all internet use.27 The United Nations, human rights organizations, government ministries (including in the US and the UK) and legal scholars all saw Gaza as an occupied territory under the control of Israel even before the war.28 These features as well as Gaza’s geography and demography exacerbate the crisis I outline below.

Israel, already before the current war, has been described as an apartheid state by leading human rights organizations following serious and well documented reports (Human Rights Watch,29 Amnesty International,30 and B’Tselem31). Apartheid and de-humanization were in place far before the beginning of the war. A 2012 poll found that back then 58% of Israelis believed Israel was already practicing apartheid against Palestinians, 69% said that if Israel annexed the West Bank the local Palestinians should be denied the right to vote, 49% thought Jewish citizens should be treated better than Arab (i.e. Palestinian) citizens, and 47% want to transfer some of Israel’s Arab population to the Palestinian Authority.32

Israel’s justice system was one-sided and biased against Palestinians well before the beginning of the war as well. Between 2017-2021 for example, Israeli security forces killed 614 civilians and injured 76,340 (according to the UN). The military justice system received 1,260 complaints regarding Israeli soldiers’ conduct towards Palestinians, including at least 409 cases of Palestinian deaths. Of these only 248 investigations were opened, and only 11 of those investigations resulted in indictments. Only three of the indictments included the killing of Palestinians (out of 409 or 614 deaths), and the few soldiers found guilty received minor punishments.33

All of the above has facilitated many of the policies and actions I discuss below.