The Palestinian slaughter is unfolding in Gaza while the European Union, the United States and the United Kingdom are watching, not willing to condemn or stop it, and “calling it a humanitarian crisis, as if the weather caused it”, said Irish politician and European parliament member Clare Daly. 

There is no mistaking what this is: genocide. It may be the first genocide in history to be live-streamed on social media. 

We need to stop it. It is being marketed as Israel defending itself, even as the evidence tells us it is about real estate and ethnic cleansing. The Iraq war was similarly marketed as fighting terrorism, and bringing democracy, but we know it was all about oil and money. When it comes to genocide there is no grey area. You are either for or against genocide.

Mads Gilbert, a Norwegian doctor who regularly visits Gaza, said the Israeli bombing of the besieged strip makes Dante’s Inferno “look like a tea party”. The current and previous military offensives in the region operated on the premise that coercive force can compel Palestinians to acquiesce to a system of oppression and apartheid. The underlying argument posits that relentless bombings, targeted shootings, home demolitions, the detention and incarceration of children and violent settler attacks will eventually coerce Palestinians into accepting the imposed status quo. But this notion is fundamentally flawed and disingenuous. 

The stated objective of abusing Palestinians into submission merely serves as a façade; the true intent has always been to subject them to such extreme duress that it becomes justifiable to remove them altogether. The strategy involves pushing an already marginalised population into an untenable situation and, when they inevitably resist with force, as happened in the jailbreak of 7 October, Israel can claim that it has exhausted all other options.

10 stages of genocide

The Israeli campaign to legitimise genocide combines propaganda and media disinformation. This strategy involves fulfilling 10 stages and Israel has progressed through these stages systematically. In the first two stages, classification and symbolisation, Palestinians and Jews have been distinctively categorised, as evidenced by colour-coded identity documents and car licence plates in the West Bank, where settlers display yellow plates while Palestinians have white ones.

Stage three, discrimination, exhibits a profound ubiquity characterised by discriminatory laws and practices disproportionately affecting Palestinians. These encompass the belief that Jews are superior to non-Jews, which then manifests in specific legislation such as the pre-Nakba denial of the right of return, constraints on political parties and trade unions, the demolition of homes, the deprivation of essential services like electricity, water and roads in the Naqab desert, refusal of permits for the construction of wells, the implementation of segregated school systems, the denial of access to agricultural land, extrajudicial killings, forced removals and the expropriation of land. These discriminatory measures afflict Palestinians in Gaza, the West Bank and Jerusalem, and those with Israeli citizenship.

Dehumanisation, which corresponds to stage four of the genocide process, entails the desensitisation of Israeli society to the looming prospect of genocide. This desensitisation is evident in various instances of dehumanising rhetoric. Notably, in 2014, Israeli politician Ayelet Shaked, who later became the justice minister in the Israeli coalition government, advocated for the genocide of Palestinians on Facebook. She characterised the “entire Palestinian people” as “the enemy”. She explicitly called for the “slaughtering of Palestinian mothers who give birth to ‘little snakes’”. Such dehumanising language has also been echoed by Yoav Gallant, Israel’s defence minister, who referred to Palestinians as “animals”, justifying their inhumane treatment. 

The presence of two banners in Tel Aviv, proclaiming “Victory [means] zero residents in Gaza” and “Mass destruction of Gaza,” underscores the prevailing atmosphere of dehumanisation and the ominous disposition towards the Palestinian population. Israel’s President Isaac Herzog said there are no innocent civilians in Gaza. He blamed all Palestinians claiming, “It’s an entire nation out there that is responsible. It’s not true this rhetoric about civilians not [being] aware, not involved, it’s absolutely not true …” The political culture inside Israel supports genocide and ethnic cleansing. Consider comments by journalists such as Yinon Magal, Roy Sharon and Shimon Riklin who have said “Gaza should be wiped off from the face of the Earth, we need to eliminate Gaza, the area needs to be cleaned” and in seeking to eliminate Hamas, “if we need a million bodies, then let there be a million bodies”. 

Calls for annexation of Gaza

Organisation is fifth in the stages of a genocide, and includes arming militant settler groups and motivating Israeli soldiers to act with impunity. The Israeli army has provided weapons to settler groups, and there are instances of incitement to violence against Palestinians. This includes individuals such as Ezra Yachin, an Israeli army reservist, who has urged fellow Israelis to “erase the memory” of Palestinians. In a video featured by news website Middle East Eye, Yachin is seen encouraging “every armed Jew” to take action against Palestinians, with a stated objective of obliterating their presence. Yachin, a former combat soldier who played a role in the Deir Yassin massacre, was called on to “inspire” Israeli army personnel amid the ongoing bombardment of Gaza.

Foreign Minister Eli Cohen called for Israelis to annex Gaza saying, “At the end of this war, not only will Hamas no longer be in Gaza, the territory of Gaza will also decrease.” Tzipi Hotovely, Israel’s ambassador to the UK, stated on a live broadcast that “there is no humanitarian crisis in Gaza”. She has also advocated for annexing the West Bank, East Jerusalem and Gaza. She launched an outspoken attack on the Board of Deputies of British Jews over its support for a Palestinian state in its 2019 Jewish Manifesto saying, “It is important to say explicitly: A Palestinian state is a danger to the State of Israel.”

Stage six is polarisation. This includes spreading hate propaganda and fear-mongering to the extent that people believe that “if we don’t kill them, they will kill us”. It also works to justify all violence against Palestinians and creates the false notion that the Israelis are the victims. Additionally, the Israeli government has implemented emergency regulations that allow the suspension of foreign news channels. Communication Minister Shlomo Karhi pushed for these measures citing national security concerns, particularly targeting Al Jazeera. Karhi also proposed taking action against journalists, including Israeli citizens, who are seen as damaging national morale. Protestors against the genocide in Gaza have also been threatened by the head of the Israeli police.

Stage seven is preparation and involves making plans for mass extermination. This phase is couched in euphemisms such as “counter-terrorism”. In the past two weeks, Israel has called up more than 300 000 reservists, the US has sent two warships supplying Israel with ammunition and military aid and Israeli Occupation forces have amassed around Gaza while other IOF, together with the militant settlers, are perpetrating crimes in the occupied West Bank in places like Hebron and Jenin. 

International responses and accountability

Stage eight represents a pivotal phase in the genocidal process, characterised by persecution, which mirrors the harrowing circumstances witnessed in Gaza over the past 16 years. The Israeli apartheid state has laid siege to Gaza, imposing a gradual genocide by depriving its inhabitants of essential resources such as water, food and medicines. The systematic confiscation of land, forced displacement, and the enforced confinement of the population into segregated areas exemplify this distressing stage. Throughout this phase, Israel has closely monitored international responses. The absence of meaningful consequences and the presence of support and endorsement, particularly from European and US authorities, have emboldened Israel.

It believed that it could proceed to the final stage, confident that it would encounter minimal resistance, nor would it be held accountable for its actions. This is seemingly the belief shared by many inside Israel, as Revital Gottlieb, a member of the Knesset for the Likud party, posted on X, “Bring down buildings!! Bomb without distinction!! Stop with this impotence. You have ability. There is worldwide legitimacy! Flatten Gaza. Without mercy! This time, there is no room for mercy!”

Stage nine, denoted as extermination, is already upon us. In a mere six days, Israel dropped 6 000 bombs on Gaza, resulting in the erasure of 47 families (and counting) from official records. Hospitals, schools, refugee convoys, mosques, churches and residential buildings have all become targets of bombings. While all eyes are on Gaza, Israel settlers have attacked the West Bank. Additionally, Israel has used white phosphorus and tested new weaponry, leading a Gaza doctor to describe the horrifying effects as “4th-degree burns”, prompting urgent calls to halt the genocide. Antony Loewenstein, author of The Palestine Laboratory, adds that we must not ignore the reality that Israel has spent decades utilising a wide array of tools and technologies on Palestinians to exert control over them. 

‘Your presence in Gaza valley increases your chances of death’

The 10th phase is denial — it happens after the genocide. This will follow once there is international condemnation and prosecution for war crimes.

As children in Gaza write their names on their hands so that their bodies can be identified in the event they are killed by the Israelis, Israeli settlers make Instagram videos mocking the pain of Palestinian mothers with children who have been killed. 

In the meanwhile, the Israeli military drops new messages over Gaza City: “Everyone who hasn’t evacuated from northern Gaza to the south might be treated as a member of a terrorist organisation. Your presence in Gaza valley increases your chances of death.”

This is the Gaza genocide. 

Dr Quraysha Ismail Sooliman is a National Institute of the Humanities and Social Sciences postdoctoral researcher in the Department of Political Sciences at the University of Pretoria.

This article first appeared in the Mail & Guardian on 24 October 2023.

Disclaimer: The opinions expressed in this article are solely those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of the University of Pretoria.