Gaza Genocide Was Predictable
The European Zionist founders of Israel knew they could establish a Jewish state in Palestine only by removing the native Palestinian inhabitants, who formed the majority of the ppulation. In the 1940’s, they began to ethnically cleanse the natives via massacres, intimidation, and deportation. This forced expulsion has cointinued without pause for the past 78 years. It is clearly visible today in the West Bank, East Jerusalem and Gaza.
Colonial Violence Breeds Resistence
According to the UN Human Rights Office, Israeli Jewish settlers have carried out more than 1,330 attacks in the occupied West Bank since the beginning of 2026. These are Ku Klux Klan-like pogroms & lynchings resulting in massive property damage and the death of hundreds of Palestinians, including two American citizens. Soldiers of the Israeli Defense Forces often join the settlers in the attacks.
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 systematically using starvation as a tool of war and that this amounts to collective punishment and a war crime. Israel severely restricts Gazans’ access to food, medicine and even fresh water. From late 2023 up to Aug.18, 2025, at least 273 Gaza residents, including 112 children, died from malnutrition. The long-term consequences of starvation include generational trauma and developmental damage. 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 by Geocartography on behalf of Penn State University, 82 percent of Jewish Israeli respondents supported the forced expulsion of residents of the Gaza Strip.
THE MORAL OBLIGATION TO END OUR COMPLICITY
Call, email, or meet with your senators and representatives. Demand that they end US support for Israel’s wars, restore funds to UN relief organizations and arrest Benjamin Netanyaho and other criminals wanted by the Internaional Criminal Court
Donate to trusted humanitarian relief organizations and organize local fundraisers.
Join or organize peaceful demonstrations, interfaith vigils, and teach-ins.
Join and support local and national organizations such as NorCal Sabeel, Jewish Voice for Peace, Albany-El Cerrito for Palestine and Taxpayers Against Genocide.
Leverage social media. Read and share updates from verified sources.
Pressure institutions in your orbit to divest from Israel apartheid and from complicit weapons manufacturers.
Speak out. Support academic freedom and free speech. Oppose the silencing of Palestinian voices.
