I started writing something, then consulted ChatGPT, then it came down to this…
What is happening to the Palestinian people today—especially in Gaza, and across the occupied West Bank—is not merely a conflict, nor just a humanitarian crisis. It is, unmistakably, a system of domination, dehumanization, and destruction, whose structure and logic bear chilling resemblance to what was once done to Jews in Nazi-occupied Europe.
For those that cant remember…
The Warsaw Ghetto, built by the Nazis in 1940, was a walled prison designed to starve, isolate, and ultimately annihilate Jews. It functioned as a waiting room for genocide, wrapped in the language of “security,” enforced by bureaucrats and barbed wire, and motivated by the belief that one people’s safety could only come through another’s erasure.
Before and during the Holocaust, the Nazis viewed Jews not as human beings—portraying them as vermin, parasites, and enemies of the state. Such rhetoric rationalized brutality: deportations, forced labor, starvation, and industrial murder. Any resistance from German opposition not agreeing with these extreme ideologies were met with swift and brutal execution or “disappearance”.
Today, Gaza is a prison: fenced, surveilled, denied fuel, food, medicine, and water—its people bombed, displaced, and vilified. Its civilians, like those of Warsaw in 1943, are labeled threats by birth. They are punished as a group, and their deaths rationalized as “collateral.” The blockade has become siege; the siege, bombardment; the bombardment, a slow and methodical unmaking of a people.
Let these statements speak for themselves, made by the Israeli political and military leadership:
Defense Minister Yoav Gallant (October 9, 2023): “I have ordered a complete siege on the Gaza Strip. There will be no electricity, no food, no fuel … We are fighting human animals and we are acting accordingly.” Government of Israel+3YouTube+3Mideast Journal+3Reuters+14Business Insider+14Al Jazeera+14
Defense Minister Yoav Gallant (October 13, 2023): “Gaza won’t return to what it was before… Hamas won’t be there. We will eliminate everything.” (Note: statement reported following siege comments.)
Deputy Knesset Speaker Nissim Vaturi (February 26, 2025): Called Palestinians “subhumans” and urged: “Separate the children and women and kill the adults in Gaza… There are no innocents there.” palcit.net+5World Socialist Web Site+5News.com.au+5Middle East Eye+6The New Arab+6News.com.au+6
Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich (May 6, 2025): “Gaza will be completely destroyed,” vowing the civilian population would be displaced to third countries. X+13The Guardian+13dw.com+13
Heritage Minister Amichai Eliyahu (November 5, 2023): Said dropping a “nuclear bomb” on Gaza “is an option” and declared, “There are no uninvolved civilians in Gaza.” en.wikipedia.org+9trtworld.com+9The Guardian+9
Former Defense Minister Moshe Ya’alon (December 1, 2024): Warned of ethnic cleansing, describing Palestinians as a “cancer” that must be “severed.” Reuters+1arabnews.com+1
Deputy Defense Minister Eli Ben‑Dahan (August 2013): “To me, they [Palestinians] are like animals, they are not human.” Reuters+15en.wikipedia.org+15The Times of Israel+15
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu (October 28, 2023): Invoked the biblical command: “You must remember what Amalek has done to you,” framing Gaza (and by implication Hamas) as the modern Amalek to be utterly destroyed. Reuters+3Government of Israel+3jewishcurrents.org+3Mideast Journal+1
This is not metaphor. The human toll is staggering:
- As of mid‑2025, over 190 UN aid workers have been killed in Gaza—the highest number ever recorded for UN personnel.
- More than 35,000 Palestinians have died, the majority being women and children.
- Over 100 journalists, many Palestinian and some clearly marked as press, have been killed amid indiscriminate bombings.
- Independent international news agencies are not allowed regular access to Gaza. The Israeli military restricts foreign journalism while local reporters risk—and often lose—their lives. The siege extends to information and truth.
Let’s look at some facts. Israel’s actions have been ruled by international bodies to breach multiple international laws, including:
- Fourth Geneva Convention (1949): This is the big one, and the west seem to simply ignore this breach, which prohibits collective punishment, forced displacement, and destruction of civilian property. The Gaza blockade, West Bank home demolitions, and military offensives violating proportionality and distinction clearly breach it.
- Rome Statute (ICC): defines war crimes, crimes against humanity, and genocide. The ICC is actively investigating Israeli military operations, settlements, and alleged apartheid.
- UN Security Council Resolution 2334 (2016): labels Israeli settlement expansion in occupied territory a “flagrant violation” of international law—yet settlements have continued expanding.
- Genocide Convention (1948): includes acts like causing serious bodily and mental harm and inflicting life conditions calculated to destroy a group—exactly what Israel’s siege, aid blockage, and dehumanizing rhetoric suggest.
- Customary International Humanitarian Law: mandates distinction between combatants and civilians. The mass killing of non‑combatants—children, media workers, aid personnel—clearly breaches this principle.
This is how genocide begins—not with camps and gas chambers, but with fences, with hate made law, with bombs justified by fear, and with a world that refuses to call it what it is until the ash settles.
And perhaps most painfully: this is being done by a state built in the shadow of genocide—a state born from the world’s vow, “Never again.” But that vow has grown hollow, because what was meant as a shield for the oppressed has become a sword for the powerful.
This is not to erase the Holocaust. It is to honor it. To say: we have seen this before.
And to ask:
If not now, when?
If not this, what will we finally call genocide?
There simply is not one argument that carries any moral or factual weight in my opinion that justifies what Israel (with the backing of some very strong Western Countries like the US) is and has been doing in the region and to the Palestinians over the last 80 years.