Preface
Last updated:1 November 29, 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 long 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 had bravely spoken out early in the war were an inspiration.2 I do not believe this document will convince many others to change their minds. Rather, I write this publicly to bear witness to the events I observe and testify that during the war there were and remain Israeli voices who strongly dissented from Israel’s actions. I preserve the previous versions of this document to demonstrate how much was known even at early stages of the war.
Beginning in November 2024, due to the amount of material I have begun to update this document in parts, starting from its beginning. I have also launched a dedicated website, https://witnessing-the-gaza-war.com/, to house both versions of the document, where readers could access its different parts and versions. The latest version of this document can also be found on my academia.edu, which has both English and Hebrew versions. I use my Twitter page to notify when new sections come out.
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 Israeli fire in the general chaos. About 250 people, mostly Israeli civilians, were taken hostage to Gaza. These atrocities, fore and foremost the indiscriminate killing and kidnapping of civilians, are war crimes and crimes against humanity (of murder and hostage-taking, among others).3 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 within the historical context of the longstanding conflict between Israel and the Palestinians – served and continue to serve as the justification for the current war that this document examines.
The war and public support
Despite Hamas’ aforementioned atrocities, I believe Israel’s response to the events of Oct. 7 over more than a 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 2023), 7% (December 2023), 3.2% (January 2024) and 4% (March-April 2024) 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.4 In March 2024, 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),5 and 80% of Israeli Jews believed that Israel should not consider the suffering of Gazans as it conducted its military operation.6 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.7 A September 2024 poll found that 83% of Israeli Jews believed that the moral conduct of the IDF during the war was good or excellent, and that 61.5% believed soldiers should not be investigated in cases of abuse against Gazan detainees.8 A different September 2024 poll found that 82% of Israeli Jews were not concerned with the humanitarian conditions in Gaza.9
As of writing, the war continues despite unclarity about its objectives and the immense destruction it has wrought.10 High-placed voices within Israel11 as well as the US12 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.13 Over time, over half of polled Israelis were willing to reach a ceasefire deal, often associated with releasing the hostages and ending the war with an Israeli retreat from Gaza (56% in July 2024,14 54% in August,15 53% in September,16 75% in October in a question that did not refer to an Israeli retreat,17 and 66% in November18). By October 2024, however, 61% of Israelis believed the Israeli government had no plan to finish the war.19 At the same time, most Israelis came to support increased military operations against Hezbollah in Lebanon in a separate front,20 with such operations taking place from September to late November 2024. The operations in Lebanon received high levels of support among the Israeli public at first (80% in late September), but that support dwindled over time.21
War crimes, crimes against humanity, and genocide
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 consists of several crimes against humanity.22 Taken together, Israel’s actions during the war are consistent with the definition of genocide as I understand it.22
The formal aspect of the question of genocide came to be discussed in December 2023, when South Africa accused Israel of committing genocide in Gaza, filing a complaint with the International Court of Justice. In January 2024, the International Court of Justice adopted provisional measures that required Israel to prevent genocide against Palestinians in Gaza.23 Commentators at the time widely interpreted this as if it was plausible that Israel was committing genocide.24 In October 2024, South Africa filed its claim of genocide (“Memorial”) against Israel in the ICJ. The submission amounted to over 750 pages of text and over 4,000 pages of annexes.25 The question of intent on the Israeli side – crucial for the definition of genocide – has been addressed by a 120-page public dossier of evidence presented to the UN Security Council.26 The court is expected to take years to reach a formal conclusion about the question.
Many observers have commented on the question of genocide over the past year. Several institutions within the UN called to prevent genocide in November 2023.27 A UN Special Rapporteur concluded that Israel was committing genocide in her report in March 2024, and repeated that conclusion in another report in October that concluded that Israel aimed to completely remove or eradicate Palestinians.28 A UN Special Committee that issues periodic sub-annual reports on Palestinian matters concluded that Israel’s policies and practices after Oct. 7 “are consistent with the characteristics of genocide”.29 Professional analyses of academic centers for Human Rights reached the same conclusion.30 An important Mediterranean human rights organization accepted the conclusion of genocide based on a large amount of evidence.31 A federal judge in California – i.e. a representative of the federal US – ruled in January 2024 that Israel’s actions are “plausibly” genocide.32
Many scholars have framed the situation through the question of genocide, with many accepting that definition. Already a week after the beginning of the war, over 800 scholars and practitioners of international law, conflict studies and genocide studies warned of the possibility of genocide against Palestinians.33 Experts before34 and after35 the January 2024 Order have pointed out that Israel’s behavior in the war included both action and intent, necessary for the definition of genocide.22 A June 2024 poll of 758 mostly American scholars who work on the Middle East found that 34% defined the situation as genocide, with another 41% defining it as “major war crimes akin to genocide”.36 The Board of Directors of the Middle East Studies Association accused Israel of using “genocidal violence” and engaging in “cultural genocide”.37 A year into the war, several experts who hesitated whether this was a case of genocide early in the war became convinced the legal requirements for genocide have been met.38 Individual scholars spoke or wrote publicly as well.39 A few Israeli academic experts accepted that Israel is committing genocide in Gaza.40 As of writing, the question has only recently entered Israeli discourse.41 I discuss my own specific reasoning for using the term genocide to describe Israel’s actions in an appendix to this document.
Some international institutions that have evaluated the situation independently described Israel’s actions as war crimes or crimes against humanity. In May 2024, the Prosecutor of the International Criminal Court has requested arrest warrants against Benjamin Netanyahu, Israel’s Prime Minister, and Yoav Gallant, its Defense Minister, accusing them of war crimes and crimes against humanity, and repeated that request on multiple occasions.42 In November 2024, the ICC finally issued its warrants of arrest against both Netanyahu and Gallant, citing the war crime of starvation as a method of warfare, and the crimes against humanity of murder, persecution and other inhumane acts.43
An Independent International Committee of the UN Human Rights Council concluded in June 2024 that Israel’s actions consist of war crimes and crimes against humanity, including extermination and ethnic cleansing that were conducted with intent.44 The same group repeated its conclusions in harsher language in October 2024, stating that Israeli security forces committed the crime against humanity of extermination, as well as other crimes against humanity (including forced disappearance, torture and rape) and war crimes.45 A major human rights NGO examined Israel’s forced displacement of Palestinians in Gaza and concluded that it amounted to a crime against humanity.46
In a case that began long before the war, the ICJ declared in July 2024 that Israel’s continued presence in the occupied Palestinian territories (the West Bank and Gaza) is unlawful, noting also that Israel exercised key elements of authority over Gaza even before October 7.47 The court also decided that Israel must bring its unlawful presence to an end as rapidly as possible, cease all settlement activities, and is obliged to make reparation for the damage caused to people in the occupied Palestinian territories.48 This decision drew some attention in Israel, with some rare acknowledgement that war crimes were committed in the West Bank.49 A year after the beginning of the war, an NGO filed a major complaint with the ICC against 1,000 IDF soldiers (individually identified by name) for war crimes, crimes against humanity and genocide for their actions in Gaza. The complaint was said to be supported by over 8,000 pieces of verifiable evidence.50 Formal complaints by the NGO led to tangible results.51
Key international officials have used very strong words to describe the effects of the war. The UN Security General stated that “The suffering endured by the Palestinian people in Gaza is beyond imagination”.52 The Prosecutor at the ICC and the Spokesperson for UNICEF have both described Gaza as “hell on earth”.53 Other officials have said similar things.54 Institutions like the UN Development Programme (UNDP) have stated in a report that the impacts of the war have set back development in Gaza by decades.55
Other international institutions have taken action to stop the war because of these and other infractions. Since the situation in the Gaza Strip continued to deteriorate in February and March 2024,56 the UN Security Council has passed a resolution demanding “an immediate ceasefire” in Gaza in late March.57 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.58 Another UN Security Council resolution in June 2024 called for a ceasefire as well.59 As of writing, Israel has not changed its policy in a substantive manner since these decisions even if the overall rate of killing has decreased due to the general slowdown of the active fighting in the war.60 The United Nations General Assembly adopted a resolution to impose sanctions and an arms embargo on Israel in September 2024 (124 in favor, 12 against).61 Several European countries, including those which have had close relations with Israel such as Germany and the United Kingdom, have begun to limit the arms they send to Israel.62 In October 2024, The editorial board of Financial Times urged the US to stop supplying Israel with offensive weapons.63 In November 2024, 52 countries (and two organizations) – including Russia and China – signed a letter calling for an arms embargo on Israel.64 At the same time, the pope suggested that the international community investigate whether Israel was committing genocide.65
On several key occasions, Israel has obstructed international investigations.66 This has obfuscated the reality on the ground. The fact that over a year into the war Israel has provided almost no investigations or reports of its own, even with regards to high-profile cases, suggests that the absence of precise information is in its interests (on this see also the Media section below).67 Israel has also lashed out against key international officials, going as far as to declare the UN Secretary-General as “persona non grata” and banning him from entering the country.68
Israel’s heavy-handed approach during the war also caused significant harm to human rights within its own borders. An Israeli NGO demonstrated that the Israeli government has undermined the foundations of the country’s democracy, has infringed on right of freedom of speech of its critics, has persecuted its Arab minority, distributed arms to untrained citizens, normalized citizen surveillance, accelerated the occupation in the West Bank and has violated the rights of suspects and prisoners.69 Although these are not the focus of my report, they are an important consequence of this war which I touch upon in several sections below (e.g. Media, Hostages).
Israel’s conduct during the war has repeatedly and systematically destroyed existing laws and norms that aimed to regulate “civilized” warfare in recent decades.70 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 over a year. Indiscriminate bombing is similarly illegal yet practiced by Israel since the beginning of the war. Attacking hospitals is illegitimate – and yet Israel attacked every hospital in Gaza (as well as assassinated patients in a West Bank hospital and attacked Lebanese hospitals). Embassies are supposed to be off-limits, and yet Israel bombed a foreign embassy (Iran) in a different country (Syria).71 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)72: Israel did so matter-of-factly, while almost completely trusting the results of an automatic system for identifying targets. Norms regarding collateral damage were destroyed as Israel was willing to kill hundreds of uninvolved civilians to reach a single high value target. The lack of a forceful response by many countries to the destruction of these norms has normalized this behavior.
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,73 making it one of the most densely populated polities on the planet (over 6,000 people/square kilometer – slightly less than Hong Kong and Singapore).74 About 70% of the population descend from refugees who fled Mandatory Palestine to Gaza during the 1948 war (“Nakba”).75 Since 2007 Israel had laid siege on the Gaza Strip, severely limiting the movement and trade in/out of the Strip in a move that destroyed its economy and the livelihoods of many of its inhabitants.76 Periodic rounds of violence – with major escalations in 2008/9, 2012, 2014 and 2021 – disrupted any recovery in the Strip.77 In 2022, poverty levels in Gaza reached 65%, while unemployment was 45%.78 Israel has long controlled Gaza’s borders, communications, electricity, water and even population registry.79 Even before the war, it continuously surveilled Gazans’ movements and their communications, including all phone calls and all internet use.80 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.81 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,82 Amnesty International,83 and B’Tselem84). As a term, apartheid is taken from a South African context and means two parallel systems of political rights. In the case of Israel, the term refers to a system that cements the supremacy or domination of Jews over Palestinians.85 Apartheid has been defined as a crime against humanity in an International Convention in 1973.86 While the West Bank and Gaza have long been declared as areas under apartheid, the aforementioned reports found that apartheid also existed in Israeli sovereign territory (i.e. within the 1967 borders).
Israelis tend to agree with this characterization of Israel. Several Israeli leaders, including former Prime Ministers and heads of security organizations, have used the term apartheid, or close descriptions, to refer to the political reality.87 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% wanted to transfer some of Israel’s Arab population to the Palestinian Authority.88 In the decade before Oct. 7, Israeli analysts and officials have referred to their strategy against Palestinians as “mowing the lawn” (or grass), i.e. periodically degrading their abilities, a de-humanizing term that percolated into the language of high Israeli officials.89
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).90 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 cases or 614 deaths), and the few soldiers found guilty received minor punishments.90
All of the above has facilitated many of the policies and actions I discuss below.