How Israel lost its soul

The dramatic story of Israel’s birth in 1948 following the Nazi Holocaust captured the wonder and admiration of the world. Its founders claimed that Israel would be a light to the nations.

But the Jewish state’s identity has now gone from being the victim of genocide to perpetrator in less than two generations.

Israel’s Likud government stands accused of genocide in Gaza by a UN Special Committee, the World Court’s admission that the accusation is plausible, and recently by 28 nations acting in concert to declare Israel in violation of International Humanitarian Law.

What happened? Rather than face the truth of 75 years of injustice to Palestinians that led to the terrible slaughter and hostage-taking by Hamas in 2023, most Israelis support the daily overkill in Gaza, now nearly two years long. After more than 100,000 casualties under constant bombing of the civilian population with no one shooting back, famine has begun.

Israel as a society and government have performed exactly the opposite of what David Ben Gurion declared:

The State of Israel will foster the development of the country for the benefit of all its inhabitants; it will be based on freedom, justice and peace …

Israel lost its soul by becoming racist, then racialist, with the doctrinaire view that Jews are by nature and divine right superior to other races. This has led to suppression of the Palestinians, and, if given the opportunity, to their extermination, as is now evident in Gaza.

Why under its decades-long military occupation of Palestine, have Arabs been killed, imprisoned, wounded, neighbourhoods bombed, houses destroyed, streets ploughed up, families imprisoned behind concrete walls, and an entire population denied the right to travel? 

The Zionist’s answer to these questions may be that the Palestinians under decades of military rule are not actually citizens of Israel. That is a distinction without a difference, because the occupying authority has legal responsibility for the population under occupation, including the West Bank and Gaza.

True, there are areas declared to be administered by the Palestinians alone, but no one pretends that the Palestinian territory is truly free and independent. The occupied territory and its people remain wards of the Israeli state. Even though the UN created Israel, its various governments have long denied any right of the UN to curtail its expansionist aims and war-making powers.

Jewish Holocaust survivor Raphael Lemkin coined the word ‘genocide’ and made it his lifelong task to see it implemented in international law. The Genocide Convention was ratified by the United Nations in 1948, but is being deliberately flaunted by Israel in Gaza.

Genocide is a serious charge, but its terms in international law are clear: no killing or setting up conditions for the destruction of a people group just because they are members of that group, no forced expulsion or transfers of that group, and no public advocacy to do so, which is a key provision already violated by Messrs Netanyahu, Trump, Galant, and others.

Read also: The International Order Is Dying in Gaza, Mohamed ElBaradei

In January 2024 the International Court of Justice (ICJ), joined by an Israeli ad hoc Judge, Aharon Barak, voted to urge punishment of those advocating expulsion or transfer of the population of Gaza.

The citizens of Israel bear collective responsibility for the actions of their government, but not as individuals unless they specifically vote for or advocate genocidal actions. Israeli opposition figures, of which there are very few, are courageous and deserve praise.

What about the citizens of the United States where both Democrats and Republicans have long aided and abetted Israel’s violence toward those under its protection? Governments and citizens everywhere must join forces to prevent famine from claiming more children in Gaza. 

Citizens must raise our voices now or be forever classed with those who allowed and abetted today’s Genocide. (Inter Press Service)

James E Jennings PhD is President of Conscience International, and Leader of US Academics for Peace delegations to Iraq, Iran, Syria, Sudan, and other countries. He taught Middle East History, Archaeology, and Religion at US universities.

Bearing Witness

The Associated Press, AFP, BBC News and Reuters this week issued this joint statement: 

We are desperately concerned for our journalists in Gaza, who are increasingly unable to feed themselves and their families. For many months, these independent journalists have been the world’s eyes and ears on the ground in Gaza. They are now facing the same dire circumstances as those they are covering.   

Journalists endure many deprivations and hardships in war zones. We are deeply alarmed that the threat of starvation is now one of them. It is essential that adequate food supplies reach the people of Gaza.