{"id":100276,"date":"2025-07-28T20:41:14","date_gmt":"2025-07-28T20:41:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/100276\/"},"modified":"2025-07-28T20:41:14","modified_gmt":"2025-07-28T20:41:14","slug":"two-israeli-rights-groups-say-their-country-is-committing-genocide-in-gaza","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/100276\/","title":{"rendered":"Two Israeli rights groups say their country is committing genocide in Gaza"},"content":{"rendered":"

TEL AVIV, Israel (AP) \u2014 Two prominent Israeli rights groups on Monday said their country is committing genocide in Gaza<\/a>, the first time that local Jewish-led organizations have made such accusations against Israel during nearly 22 months of war.<\/p>\n

The claims by B\u2019Tselem and Physicians for Human Rights-Israel add to an explosive debate over whether Israel\u2019s military offensive in Gaza \u2014 launched in response to Hamas\u2019 deadly Oct. 7, 2023, attack that killed some 1,200 people and took more than 250 hostage \u2014 amounts to genocide.<\/p>\n

The Palestinians, their supporters and international human rights groups make that claim, and the International Court of Justice is hearing a genocide case<\/a> filed by South Africa against Israel.<\/p>\n

But in Israel, founded in the wake of the Holocaust, even the government\u2019s strongest critics have largely refrained from making such accusations due to the deep sensitivities and strong memories of the Nazi genocide of Europe\u2019s Jews. Many in Israel also view the war in Gaza as a justified response to the deadliest attack in the country\u2019s history and not an attempt at extermination.<\/p>\n

Shattering a taboo in Israel<\/p>\n

The rights groups, while prominent and respected internationally, are considered in Israel to be on the political fringe, and their views are not representative of the vast majority of Israelis. But having the allegation of genocide come from Israeli voices shatters a taboo in a society that has been reticent to criticize Israel\u2019s conduct in Gaza.<\/p>\n

Guy Shalev, director of Physicians for Human Rights-Israel, said the Jewish-Israeli public often dismisses accusations of genocide as antisemitic or biased against Israel.<\/p>\n

\u201cPerhaps human rights groups based in Israel … coming to this conclusion is a way to confront that accusation and get people to acknowledge the reality,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Israel asserts that it is fighting an existential war and abides by international law. It has rejected genocide allegations as antisemitic.<\/p>\n

It is challenging such allegations at the International Court of Justice, and it has rejected the International Criminal Court\u2019s<\/a> allegations that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and former Defense Minister Yoav Gallant committed war crimes in Gaza. Both face international arrest warrants.<\/p>\n

Israel\u2019s government on Monday said it rejects what it called an \u201cobscene\u201d and \u201cpolitically motivated document.\u201d The Ministry of Foreign Affairs told the AP that the accusation is baseless and only emboldens Hamas. It said Israel only targets Hamas and not civilians.<\/p>\n

The reports echo international claims<\/p>\n

The rights groups, in separate reports released jointly, said Israel\u2019s policies in Gaza, statements by senior officials about its goals there and the systematic dismantling of the territory\u2019s health system contributed to their conclusion of genocide.<\/p>\n

Their claims echoed those of previous reports from international rights groups like Human Rights Watch and Amnesty International.<\/p>\n

Like other rights groups, B\u2019Tselem and Physicians for Human Rights-Israel have not been allowed into Gaza during the war. Their reports are based on testimonies, documents, eyewitnesses and consultations with legal experts.<\/p>\n

Hamas\u2019 attack on Israel that started the war sparked a shift in the country\u2019s policy toward Palestinians in Gaza from \u201crepression and control to destruction and annihilation,\u201d B\u2019Tselem said.<\/p>\n

The group has long been outspoken about Israel\u2019s treatment of Palestinians. It halted cooperation with the military nearly a decade ago, saying the army\u2019s investigations into wrongdoing weren\u2019t serious, and it has accused Israel of being an apartheid state<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The PHRI report was a detailed, legal-medical analysis focusing on what it called the step-by-step dismantling of Gaza\u2019s health and life-sustaining systems including electricity, clean water and access to food.<\/p>\n

Its report says Israel has committed three of the acts of genocide defined by international law, including \u201cdeliberately inflicting on the group conditions of life calculated to bring about its physical destruction in whole or in part.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Israeli rights groups said repeated statements by Israeli officials and the military endorsing the total destruction, starvation and permanent displacement of Palestinians in Gaza, combined with policies on the ground, have demonstrated that Israel is intentionally trying to destroy Palestinian society.<\/p>\n

Gaza\u2019s health ministry said on Monday that 147 people, mostly children, have died from malnutrition-related causes. The ministry operates under the Hamas government and is seen by the U.N. as the most reliable source of data on casualties.<\/p>\n

A \u2018painful\u2019 conclusion<\/p>\n

The term \u201cgenocide\u201d strikes a chord in Israel, where Israelis grow up learning about the Holocaust and hearing survivors\u2019 harrowing stories, while promising it would never happen again.<\/p>\n

The 1948 Convention of the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide was drawn up in the aftermath of World War II and the murder by Nazi Germany of 6 million Jews. It defines genocide as acts \u201ccommitted with intent to destroy, in whole or in part, a national, ethnical, racial or religious group.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cAs the grandson of a Holocaust survivor, it\u2019s very painful for me to be reaching this conclusion,\u201d said Shalev from PHRI. But after growing up in a society where the Holocaust was so important, it demands some kind of responsibility, he said.<\/p>\n

Until now, Israeli criticism of the war in Gaza has been focused on Netanyahu and whether his wartime decision-making has been politically motivated and delayed the return of hostages \u2014 50 of them still in Gaza.<\/p>\n

Broader scrutiny of Israel\u2019s conduct in Gaza has been limited for multiple reasons. Despite the vast destruction and death in the territory and Israel\u2019s growing international isolation, most Israelis have believed for much of the war in its righteousness.<\/p>\n

And with most Jewish Israelis serving in the army, it\u2019s difficult for most people to fathom that their relatives in uniform could be carrying out genocide. Some soldiers, however, have refused to fight in the war.<\/p>\n

Jeffrey Herf, a historian who has published much on antisemitism, said the allegation of genocide doesn\u2019t take into account that there is a war between two parties. He said it ignores Hamas as a military force and Israel\u2019s right to defend itself.<\/p>\n

Israelis\u2019 focus is on the hostages, not Palestinians<\/p>\n

After groups like B\u2019Tselem in recent years accused Israel of apartheid, more mainstream voices<\/a> in Israel also picked up the claim, although in less sweeping ways.<\/p>\n

Israeli historian Tom Segev said he\u2019s not sure the new reports and their allegations will have an impact on the public.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe major thing for Israelis is a question of the hostages, not necessarily the fate of the population in Gaza,\u201d he said. But he said what\u2019s happening in Gaza is undermining the ideological and moral justification for the existence of Israel.<\/p>\n

The rights groups said the international community hasn\u2019t done enough to protect Palestinians and are calling on the world, including Israelis who have stayed silent, to speak up.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe have an obligation to do everything we can to speak the truth about this, to stand by the victims,\u201d said Sarit Michaeli, the international director for B\u2019Tselem.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"TEL AVIV, Israel (AP) \u2014 Two prominent Israeli rights groups on Monday said their country is committing genocide…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":100277,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[97,372,4219,4526,57,18890,65383,4527,118,4228,3464,99,3462,65384,3463,50,9598,65381,65382,96,103,107,65380],"class_list":{"0":"post-100276","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-world","8":"tag-2024-2025-mideast-wars","9":"tag-benjamin-netanyahu","10":"tag-crime","11":"tag-gaza-strip","12":"tag-general-news","13":"tag-genocide","14":"tag-guy-shalev","15":"tag-hamas","16":"tag-human-rights","17":"tag-indictments","18":"tag-international-agreements","19":"tag-israel","20":"tag-israel-government","21":"tag-jeffrey-herf","22":"tag-mideast-wars","23":"tag-news","24":"tag-palestinian-territories-government","25":"tag-sarit-michaeli","26":"tag-tom-segev","27":"tag-war-and-unrest","28":"tag-world","29":"tag-world-news","30":"tag-yoav-gallant"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/114932802180533741","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/100276","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=100276"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/100276\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/100277"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=100276"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=100276"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=100276"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}