Israel has carried out a systematic, planned, and slow-motion campaign of genocide in Gaza. Today, the number of Palestinian children killed is higher than all the children killed in the wars of Bosnia, Kosovo, and Ukraine combined. In this slow-motion genocide campaign, the power of Prime Minister Netanyahu has calculated that the world resembles a frog entering warm water and gradually getting used to the rising temperature, until it no longer realizes it is boiling.
By Veton SURROI
- From all the verses of the Old Testament, the Israeli Prime Minister, Netanyahu, chose one of the most violent when he sent Israeli soldiers in October 2023 to Gaza – a place from where on October 7 Hamas led an unprecedented action of killing Jewish civilians. This was a mission of war crimes broadcast “live,” where women, men, children, and elderly were killed only because they were Jewish. It continued with the kidnapping of children, women, and men as war hostages. Netanyahu sent the soldiers with the words: “You must remember what the Amalekites did to you, says our holy Bible. And we remember.”
The Bible says that the prophet Samuel spoke thus to Saul: “Once the Lord gave me the task to anoint you with royal oil over his people, Israel. Therefore, now listen to his command! The Lord of the armies of Israel sends this command: I have not forgotten what the Amalekites did to my people, Israel. They hindered the way when it came out of Egypt. Therefore, go to war against them and destroy them! Everything that belongs to them is condemned by me. Kill mercilessly men and women, children and infants, sheep, goats, camels, and donkeys.” The Israeli army did not need any other operational explanations. Placed in this context, the war against Gaza turned into a war against every “Amalekite” of the 21st century – men, women, children, infants, animals.
- The war in Gaza has long exceeded the legitimate right to defense and the principle of proportional punishment. Since the beginning, it has been an exercise of the biblical command. In November 2023, the Israeli army had killed between 2,500 and 3,000 children, an average of 100-150 per day. This number – for just one month – is higher than the number of children killed during the entire war in Ukraine or Kosovo, even more than both combined. Today, the number of Palestinian children killed may have reached 16,500 – more than all children killed in Bosnia, Kosovo, and Ukraine combined.
On average, from the beginning of the war until today, one Palestinian child is killed every hour. This cold and mathematical average is part of a chain of horrific narratives. The latest story is from last Friday, when a pediatric doctor and her husband, also a doctor, lost nine out of their ten children in an Israeli bombing of the hospital where they were sheltered. The tenth child is injured; his father is in critical condition, with brain injuries from the explosions.
- Apart from bombings, movement restrictions, and ongoing displacements, Palestinians in Gaza have faced hunger planned by Israeli operations. For two months, humanitarian aid has been completely stopped (after a year and a half of drastic restrictions). According to the UN, nearly half a million people are in Phase 5 of food insecurity (defined as catastrophe), and another half million in hunger. At this rate, the entire population of Gaza, currently in Phase 3, will face collective hunger by September 2025.
The entire Palestinian population depends on aid: the Israeli army has deliberately destroyed fishing boats, greenhouses, and farmland. Only 5 percent of the land is usable for agriculture. 95-99 percent of animals – birds, goats, sheep – have been destroyed. Just as in the biblical command regarding the Amalekites. Currently, Israel is carrying out an operation to occupy Gaza, with plans to relocate the Palestinian population to 15-20 percent of the existing territory. Then, this already repeatedly displaced population will be offered “humanitarian aid for evacuation to other places.”
- The entire text so far is a description of genocide. According to Article II of the UN Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide, “Genocide” means any of the following acts committed with intent to destroy, in whole or in part, a national, ethnic, racial, or religious group:
– Killing members of the group;
– Causing serious physical or mental harm to members of the group;
– Deliberately placing the group in conditions aimed at its physical destruction;
– Taking measures to prevent births within the group;
– Forcibly transferring children of the group to another group.
Apart from the fifth point, Israel has taken actions that correspond with all the above definitions. The actions aim to erase the Palestinian population from Gaza – and, according to some government representatives, even from the West Bank. Once, Palestinian activists in anti-Jewish delirium sang about a state “free from river to sea,” from Jordan to the Mediterranean. Today, this is a project of important Israeli politicians themselves: “Greater Israel.”
Israel has carried out a systematic, planned, slow-motion campaign of genocide in Gaza. In this campaign – except for the Republic of South Africa, which filed a genocide lawsuit at The Hague – Netanyahu’s regime has calculated that the world is a frog that gets used to water heating until it no longer feels it is boiling. Netanyahu has reached that point: the global frog has gotten used to boiling bubbles.