Stop the genocide in Gaza

It feels like 1939. A far-right regime is in the early stages of killing thousands and thousands of people. But instead of entering the war, the Allies are sending weapons in support of genocide.

I have avoided using this newsletter for anything but its typical educational (I hope) format, but in light of the horror and urgency of the situation we are in today, I am making an exception. Below is the text of an article I published in Canadian Dimension today, and after that are a few short thoughts and resources regarding what we can do at this desperate hour.

Stop the genocide in Gaza

“Never again means for anyone”

I work, write, and do politics around climate change and ecological collapse every day. I firmly believe that a small handful of people are throwing away the planet, putting not just the future of humanity into question but possibly even the future of all known life.

But even in that work, I have never been as upset and disturbed as I am right now.

It feels like 1939. A far-right regime is in the early stages of killing potentially hundreds of thousands of people or more.

Yet, instead of debating whether or not to enter the war, the ‘Allies’ are sending weapons and aid to that same regime—Israel—that is mobilizing its military to carry out a genocide, and criminalizing those at home who would speak out.

As a Jew, I’m not scared that I’ll be the target of a phoney global “Day of Jihad” against my people. I’m scared that I’ll be the target of angry counter-protestors following me home from a demonstration against Israel’s crimes. I could even be brutalized by police who are suggesting that pro-Palestine rallies represent “threats” to the Jewish community.

The war propaganda intended to justify Israel’s retributive slaughter in Gaza is reminiscent of the false narratives that were manufactured in the lead-up to the Iraq War in 2003. Political commentators Nima Shirazi and Adam Johnson have described the media campaign as “9/11 2.0.” But despite the slanted coverage, the reality of what’s happening is clear.

Israel’s powerful army, backed by the largest military in the world, is unleashing hell on one of the most densely populated regions on Earth, a 25 mile-long strip of land that is almost completely surrounded by a hostile state and a razor wire-topped wall. Israeli leaders use dehumanizing language that international law experts are calling genocidal, and have pledged to “wipe Hamas off the face of the earth.” Days ago, they ordered over one million Palestinian civilians to flee their homes. Where they will go is unclear.

Israel has the 15th-largest military budget in the world. It is a nuclear power. And it has the full backing of most of the biggest military spenders out there including, of course, the United States. The US guarantees Israel billions of dollars worth of military “aid” every year, on top of the $264 billion the country has received since 1946. Washington is now preparing to send an emergency aid package of another $2 billion and has also mobilized its carrier strike group in the Eastern Mediterranean.

Military analyst Marc Garlasco pointed out to the Washington Post that in the first six days of Israel’s aerial assault on Gaza, its war planes dropped as many bombs on the narrow territory as the US typically dropped on Afghanistan in a full year during its occupation. Israel is using American “bunker busters” to level apartment buildings and dropping white phosphorus, a weapon similar to napalm which burns at 800 degrees Celcius, on the same heavily populated urban areas, as well as in Lebanon.

The independent media outlet Middle East Eye collected some of the most “incendiary rhetoric” coming from Israeli officials. One elected member of Netanyahu’s ruling party wrote, “Right now, one goal: Nakba! A Nakba that will overshadow the Nakba of 48. Nakba in Gaza and Nakba to anyone who dares to join!” Netanyahu himself said, “We will destroy them.” An advisor called publicly for torturing Gazans, saying that “it was not enough to flatten Gaza.” Defense Minister Yoav Gallant described Palestinians as “human animals.”

Senior members of the Israeli government are also stating clearly that they do not consider anyone in Gaza to be a “civilian.” Israeli President Isaac Herzog was quoted in the Financial Times saying, “It’s not true this rhetoric about civilians [being] not aware, not involved… They could have risen up, they could have fought against that evil regime which took over Gaza.”

From the Israeli government’s perspective, there are no civilians among the 2.3 million people living in Gaza, because they didn’t overthrow Hamas themselves. Not even among the million of them who are children.

Former Prime Minister Naftali Bennett was even more blunt, responding to a journalist by saying, “Are you seriously… asking me about Palestinian civilians? What’s wrong with you?… I’m not going to feed electricity, or water, to my enemies.” He went on to justify the impending attacks on Gaza by comparing them to the Allies’ firebombing of Dresden during the Second World War, which killed at least 25,000 people and perhaps as many as 250,000. Many consider the “terror bombing” raid to be a war crime.

All of this is to say two things: Israel is telling us that it intends to level Gaza with little concern for—and at worst, a deliberate intent to harm—the millions of civilians trapped there. It has the military capability to follow through on that.

I stand unequivocally in support of Palestinian liberation. But you don’t need to be an anti-imperialist to take Israel at its word. It would be irresponsible for us not to.

Instead, many Western states are criminalizing Palestinian solidarity protests and deliberately stifling calls for a ceasefire.

Those of us who speak out are vilified and told we are naive for not condemning Hamas sufficiently. Often our criticisms of Israel are labelled antisemitic.

Faced with this textbook case of genocide, we all have not just a right to say something, but an obligation unparalleled in recent history. I do not make the comparison to 1939 lightly. We are standing on the precipice and time is running out. It has already run out for thousands of people.

If we who are raising the alarm turn out to be wrong, we will have spent time marching at rallies and voicing support for the basic humanity of people pushed to the margins by an apartheid state.

If those who say we are being alarmist, naive, or antisemitic, are wrong, we will have stood by, and even celebrated, as one of the darkest events of history repeats itself.

To borrow a phrase from a group of Jewish Holocaust survivors and peace activists, “Never again means for anyone.”

How will you feel looking back on what you did (or didn’t do) when the deaths reach the tens of thousands, the hundreds of thousands, the millions?

Let that be your guide, and let’s stop this before they do.

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I do not have clear answers for what exactly I or anyone can or should be doing at this time. For my part, I am raising the alarm in every venue I can find and trying to make the case for moral clarity: there are no two sides here. International conventions on genocide and war crimes are a collective commitment to the principle that those acts cannot be justified under any circumstances. Arguments about what Hamas did (or did not do) have no bearing whatsoever on what Israel is doing now. This is genocide and we cannot allow it to continue.

Jewish Voice for Peace has been leading demonstrations, phone banking campaigns, and more in the United States. I can’t say I am optimistic that the usual liberal channels of political engagement will have much impact when global leaders are not just turning a blind eye to, but actively cheerleading ethnic cleansing, but they are an important show of solidarity nonetheless.

There are many Palestinian-led organizations leading rallies and issuing calls to action as well, including the Palestinian Youth Movement.

Palestine Action is a UK-based group that leads direct action campaigns to shut down weapons manufacturers tied with Israel. There are more grassroots groups in the US pursuing similar tactics (see, for example, Demilitarize Western Mass).

A reader shared this organization, the Gift of the Givers Foundation, if you are looking to donate money for disaster relief and humanitarian support.

If you know of other ways people can fight this, please comment or reach out.

Whether it’s phone banking, protesting, direct action, or simply speaking with friends and family about it – don’t stop doing your part. We are staring down the barrel, about to repeat one of the most horrific events of history, only this time conducted – falsely! – in the name of Jews instead of against them. This Jew won’t stand for it, and I hope no one will.

Solidarity.

October 10, 2023. Photo courtesy AFP, via Canadian Dimension.