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More than 400 days have elapsed since the beginning of Israel’s relentless aggression against the people of Gaza. According to the most recent figures from the Ministry of Health, Gaza, 44,249 persons have been killed so far and more than 10,000—not included in the number of casualties—are reported missing or under the rubble. However, these figures only account for direct deaths and the number of indirect deaths could be many times this figure. A conservative estimate has placed the total number of deaths at five times the reported figure, with four indirect deaths for one direct death. If so, the total number of deaths attributable to the Israeli campaign could be up to a tenth of the total population of Gaza. Yet, Israel’s genocidal campaign against the Palestinian people continues unabated, in full view of the international community.
While the ICC warrants have prompted an intensification of the ongoing genocide by Israel, the proponents of the “rules-based order” have buried their heads under the rubble and the mass graves in Gaza.
A United Nations Special Committee has deemed Israel’s tactics in Gaza—including the use of starvation as a weapon of war—as constituting a genocide. The Pre-Trial Chamber I of the International Criminal Court (ICC) has issued arrest warrants against Benjamin Netanyahu and Yoav Gallant—the Prime Minister and Minister of Defence of Israel, respectively—for being under suspicion for war crimes such as starvation, directing intentional attacks against the civilians of Gaza, as well as various other crimes against humanity. A statement by the incumbent United States (US) President Joe Biden has denounced the ICC’s warrants as “outrageous,” vowing the unconditional support of the US to Israel. Furthermore, the US has once again vetoed—for the fourth time now—a UN Security Council resolution calling for an unconditional ceasefire. Even after weeks of negotiations, where the resolution was watered down to appease the US, the resolution was vetoed at the last moment. The US’s rejection of the ICC order, as well as its repeated vetoes at the UN, have exposed the US-led “rules-based order” as a veritable façade—a parallel entity to international law—whose prime objective is to defend US hegemony.
Observers such as the Washington Post note that the domain of the ICC is better suited to war crimes in nations such as Russia, Sudan, and Myanmar, and that actions such as the arrest warrants against Netanyahu and Gallant only erode the legitimacy of the ICC. This is, of course, congruent with the position of pro-Israel hawks in Washington, who claim that as Israel is the “only democracy in the Middle East,” it is absolved of all culpability—both moral and criminal. While the ICC warrants have prompted an intensification of the ongoing genocide by Israel, the proponents of the “rules-based order” have buried their heads under the rubble and the mass graves in Gaza.
The Integrated Food Security Phase Classification (IPC) has deemed that 91% of Gaza’s population faces acute food insecurity—IPC Phase 3 or above—with 3,45,000 facing food insecurity qualifying as a famine—IPC Phase 5. The UN has noted that since the beginning of the war, 70% of cropland has been destroyed and 90% of cattle are now dead. These are not the by-products of a war but the effects of a planned strategy of debilitating and destroying all capacity for the land to sustain life itself. Of Gaza’s housing infrastructure, 87% has either been damaged or destroyed, and 90% of Gaza’s population has been rendered homeless. Gaza has been rendered inhospitable, yet Israel continues with the campaign to render Gaza devoid of life or any possibility thereof for the Palestinian people.
With the ceasefire between Israel and Lebanon in place, Israel has begun to direct its complete military strength towards the intensification of the genocide of the civilians trapped in northern Gaza. The situation in the North Gaza governorate—one of the five governorates of Palestine in the Gaza Strip—is particularly disturbing, as up to 75,000 people are trapped there without access to food, water, and power. While Israel has forcefully displaced 1,00,000 people from the region, those that remain are unable or unwilling to leave. These civilians face ever-increasing bombardment of their homes and shelters, catastro¬phic famine conditions, and diminishing chances of survival, as Israel intensifies its scorched-earth policy against Gaza. What we see now in the North Gaza governorate are the late stages of an ethnic cleansing. Whatever the Israeli military had once claimed was its stated objective, the real objective is now clear for the world to see—the complete obliteration of northern Gaza—including Gaza city. The destruction of all infrastructure and the transformation of northern Gaza into a wasteland—so that life becomes impossible there—is only the first step of the larger plan. The next step can be deduced from Israeli Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich’s recent declaration that the aim was to “conquer” the Gaza Strip and reduce the Palestinian population there by half. The final steps can be gleaned from Israeli National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir’s recent declaration that Palestinians must “voluntarily” leave Gaza and Communications Minister Shlomo Karhi’s pronouncement that the resettlement of Gaza is the sole method to ensure Israeli security. The intent is clear: ethnic cleansing of the Palestinians in northern Gaza, total annihilation of all infrastructure, followed by establishing settler colonies—funded by the US and its allies—to strengthen the lone outpost of the “rules-based order” in West Asia. Even in its last days, the Biden presidency is committed to ensuring all possible support to the genocide in Gaza. As one warmonger demits the White House to another, the US war machine works tirelessly to ensure that peace does not break out accidentally and that the empire’s hegemony is strengthened evermore.
However, the existential crisis is borne out of the foundations of Zionism itself, which cannot sustain itself without racially motivated ethnic cleansing.
Commentators have observed that the obdurate inhumanity of the Netanyahu-led Israeli regime to commit genocide is a consequence of the existential crisis of Netanyahu’s political career and his coalition. However, the existential crisis is borne out of the foundations of Zionism itself, which cannot sustain itself without racially motivated ethnic cleansing.
What must be reiterated again and again is that what we are witnessing in Gaza is settler colonialism in action. Occupation, racial segregation, apartheid, genocide, ethnic cleansing, and the narrative of civilisational strife against those that Gallant publicly deemed “human animals” are all aspects of this process. The demands for a ceasefire must be raised even more loudly than before. But we must also demand for justice not only against those that have perpetuated these crimes against humanity but also lasting justice that ensures the Palestinian people their right to life, livelihood, and dignity in the land that is rightfully theirs.
source: https://www.epw.in/journal/2024/48/editorials/ethnic-cleansing-gaza.html
30 November 2024
