From +972 Magazine
After months of hesitation, B’Tselem and Physicians for Human Rights-Israel assert that the war is meant to erase Palestinian life — now and in the future.
After 22 months of war, starvation, and systematic destruction, two of Israel’s leading human rights organizations have concluded that Israel’s actions in the Gaza Strip constitute genocide.
This finding, issued Monday in two separate reports by Physicians for Human Rights-Israel (PHRI) and B’Tselem, marks a rupture within Israeli civil society. Until now, Israeli human rights organizations had largely stopped short of using the term “genocide,” even as Palestinian groups, Israeli genocide and Holocaust scholars, and international bodies like Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch, and Médecins Sans Frontières adopted it months ago.
Drawing on nearly two years of documentation, both groups argued that Israel’s actions in Gaza meet the definition of genocide as outlined in the 1948 Genocide Convention.
B’tselem’s report, titled “Our Genocide,” centers on Israel’s targeting of civilians and the systematic dismantling of Palestinian society in Gaza. PHRI’s report provides a health-based legal analysis of Israel’s deliberate destruction of Gaza’s healthcare system.
In a conversation with +972, B’Tselem Executive Director Yuli Novak described the decision to name genocide as the result of a long, painful process of internal reckoning. “Nothing prepares you for the realization that you are part of a society committing genocide,” she said. “This is a deeply painful moment for us.”
“What we see is intentional action — coordinated practices — aimed at destroying Palestinian society in Gaza. That is the exact definition of genocide: attacking civilians in order to destroy the group.”
Shatha Yaish is a journalist covering East Jerusalem and the West Bank.
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