Gaza Genocide Was Predictable
The founders of Israel knew that establishing a Jewish state in Palestine, where most of the inhabitants were not Jewish, was not possible without removing the native non-Jewish population. Despite opposition within the Jewish community, including by such notables as Albert Einstein, Martin Buber, Judah Magnes and Hannah Arendt, political zionism gained radical new support among Jews and Western Christians alike in the wake of the Holocaust in Europe. Starting in the 1940’s, zionist militias in Palestine began to ethnically cleanse the natives via massacres, intimidation and deportation. This forced expulsion has never stopped. It has continued for the past 77 years, and we see it now clearly in the West Bank, East Jerusalem and Gaza.
Colonial Violence Breeds Resistence
From January to June of this year, the UN has documented 757 Jewish settler attacks (Ku Klux Klan-like pogroms & lynching) in the West Bank, causing caused massive property damage and killed hundreds of Palestinians, including two American citizens. Israeli Defense Forces (IDF) wreaked even more destruction on West Bank Palestinians during this time.
Israel had blockaded Gaza for almost 18 years before October 7, 2023, turning it into an open-air prison. After that date, Israel (with Western complicity) transformed the prison into an extermination camp. More than 2 million Palestinians live in that densely populated camp, 70 percent of whom are refugees and descendants of refugees from the ethnic cleansing that made way for Israel.
Like all oppressed people, the Palestinians have resisted. They have tried nonviolent tactics: withholding taxes; peaceful marches; calls for boycott, divestment and sanctions; and appeals to international courts. Israel has responded with killings, arrests, imprisonment, and smear campaigns, including accusations of “economic terrorism,” “legal terrorism” and the knee jerk cry of “antisemitism.”
At times, Palestinians have resorted to violent means, as we saw on Oct. 7, 2023, which has been described by knowledgeable observers as akin to a prisoners' uprising or slave revolt.
Gaza Blockade, a Prelude to Genocide
The current genocide in Gaza is the latest in a series of major Israeli military incursions, most recently, 2008 (Cast Lead), 2012 (Pillar of Defense), 2014 (Protective Edge), 2021 (Wall Guardians) and 2022 (Breaking Dawn). UN fact-finding missions concluded that Israel committed war crimes in these operations.
That Israel is committing genocide in Gaza has been confirmed by many, including human rights organizations such as Amnesty International, Israel’s B’Tselem and Human Rights Watch; and by scholars, including Melanie O’Brien, president of the International Association of Genocide Scholars, and Amos Goldberg, professor of Holocaust history at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem.
Starvation as a Tool of War
UN Commissions, numerous human rights organizations and legal authorities have concluded that Israel is using starvation as a tool of war, thus engaging in collective punishment and a war crime. Israel blocks access to food, medicine and even fresh water. From late 2023 until Aug.18, 2025, at least 227 Gaza residents, including 103 children, died from malnutrition. Starvation will lead to generational trauma, as children will suffer irreversible stunting, cognitive impairment and emotional distress.
The Road to Genocide
Generations of Israelis have been taught in their schools and informed by their officials that Palestinians are terrorists and sub-human (“two-footed beasts,” “little snakes,” “vampires,” “dogs,” etc.), not worthy of compassion. In a July 2025 poll by the Israel Democracy Institute (IDI), 79 percent of Israeli Jews said they are not so troubled or not troubled at all by the reports of famine and suffering in Gaza. In another survey, conducted in March 2025 on behalf of Penn State University, 82 percent of Jewish Israeli respondents supported the forced expulsion of residents of the Gaza Strip.
SILENCE IS COMPLICITY
Each of us has the moral obligation to work toward ending our complicity in the Israeli genocide in Gaza.
Call, email, or meet with your senators and representatives to demand an immediate end to American support for Israel’s genocidal war machine and to restore funds to UN relief organizations.
Donate to trusted humanitarian relief organizations and organize local fundraisers.
Join and organize peaceful demonstrations, interfaith vigils, and teach-ins. Educate yourself and others.
Join and support local and national organizations and campaigns like CeasefireNow, Jewish Voice for Peace and NorCal Sabeel. Join Taxpayers Against Genocide.
Leverage social media. Read and share updates from verified sources.
Pressure institutions you belong to (universities, faith communities, unions and professional groups) to boycott, cut ties with and divest from Israel and from weapons manufacturers and companies complicit in the genocide.
Raise your voice in support of academic freedom and speech and in opposition to censorship of Palestinian voices.
