Israel is ethnically cleansing Gaza
we cannot quibble about the horrors unfolding in Palestine
Israel is ethnically cleansing Gaza.
Here’s the evidence:
Background
Israel has occupied Palestine for a very long time.
Gaza is the western portion of occupied Palestine. It is extremely densely populated. If Gaza were a country, it would be the 3rd-densest in the world, after Singapore.
Gaza is also an “open-air prison”, per Human Rights Watch. The entire Gaza strip is surrounded by fences with armed guards, with just three working border crossings, all of which placed under a stringent Israeli blockade. Gaza is an extremely poor place, kept so as part of Israel’s apartheid system:
In the 2006 Palestinian election, the militant Muslim nationalist group Hamas won majority support in Gaza. However, a supermajority of Palestinian voters (3 in 4) wanted Hamas to change its policies toward Israel (meaning: to be less hardline). Most Palestinians voted for Hamas primarily against the extreme corruption of Fatah, the long-ruling center-left party.
In 2007, after a year of conflict and a failed coup attempt by Fatah, Hamas took de-facto control of Gaza and Fatah de-facto control of the West Bank.
In 2018-2019, protests against the border walls led to thousands of Palestinians being shot. In a 2019 review, the United Nations Human Rights Council (UN HRC) concluded that, of the 489 cases considered, only 2 incidents presented a threat to Israeli security. As a result:
The Commission found reasonable grounds to believe that the Israeli security forces killed and maimed Palestinian demonstrators who did not pose an imminent threat of death or serious injury to others when they were shot, and where there shooting did not thwart any such threat.
Israel thus showed Gazans that peaceful protest would meet with lead.
Reactionary Israeli leaders also supported Hamas, because Hamas’ extreme rhetoric and use of terrorism made it easier to oppose Palestinian liberation. For example, in 2019, right-wing Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu gave a speech to his party’s parliament members:
“Anyone who wants to thwart the establishment of a Palestinian state has to support bolstering Hamas and transferring money to Hamas. This is part of our strategy – to isolate the Palestinians in Gaza from the Palestinians in the West Bank.
Israel thus supported the most reactionary, most militant elements of Gazan society.
On 2023 October 7, Hamas militants attacked targets across southern Israel near the Gaza strip. Hamas fighters indiscriminately targeted hundreds of civilians. The Hamas attack involved many truly evil actions. The Israeli military estimates that Hamas killed 1,300 Israelis and injured 3,000.
As a result, Hamas received near-universal international condemnation.
How did Israel respond?
Israel has killed thousands of Gazans directly
I cannot believe I have to beg my country and colleagues to value every human life, no matter their faith or ethnicity. — Rashida Tlaib
Israeli reactionaries and the Israeli military have chosen to to inflict indiscriminate violence against civilians by extensively bombing Gaza.
Within 1 week, the Israeli military had killed 2,228 Gazans, injured 8,744, and destroyed 9,283 housing units, according to the Palestinian Ministries of Health and of Public Works:
The Israeli Air Force boasted about the destruction. So did Prime Minister Netanyahu, two times. On October 10, the Israeli Minister of Defense told soldiers they were fighting “human animals”:
You saw what we are fighting against. We are fighting against human animals. This is the ISIS of Gaza. Gaza won’t return to what it was before. We will eliminate everything.
By October 12 – just 5 days – Israel had dropped 6,000 bombs in Gaza (that’s 1200 per day). For comparison, during the entire year of 2003, when the United States invaded Iraq, we dropped 29,200 bombs (that’s 80 per day). On October 10, the Israeli Defense Forces openly admitted that “the emphasis is on damage and not on accuracy”.
The devastation is horrific. Whole blocks have been destroyed by Israeli bombs.
By October 12, Israeli bombs had hit 13 healthcare facilities, including the sole hospital in Gaza City (and thus, the north half of Gaza).
Also on October 12, Israeli President Isaac Herzog blamed Palestinian civilians for failing to overthrow Hamas:
There is a state, in a way, that has built a machine of evil right on our doorstep. It’s an entire nation, out there, that is responsible. It is not true – this rhetoric about civilians, “were not aware, were not involved” – it’s absolutely not true. They could have risen up, they could have fought against that evil regime which took over Gaza in a coup d’etat, murdering their family members and Fatah.
Ground forces have been no kinder. For example, in the West Bank, Israeli forces have cracked down on pro-Gaza protests, injuring over 1,000 protesting Palestinians and killing dozens, according to the United Nations:
From the afternoon of Friday to 16:00 today, Israeli forces shot and killed 19 Palestinians, including seven boys, mostly during confrontations that erupted in protests and marches in solidarity with residents of the Gaza Strip. This has raised concerns of possible excessive use of force.
During the same period, Israeli forces injured 593 Palestinians. Bringing the total number of Palestinians injured since 7 October to over 1,150 Palestinians, including at least 106 children. Most of the injuries (over 1.000) were reported in various demonstrations in solidarity with residents of the Gaza Strip, and 26 per cent were by live ammunition.
Israel’s policies will kill thousands of Gazan through bullets and bombs.
Israel is ethnically cleansing Gaza.
Israel will kill thousands through total water blockade
“Forget about food, forget about electricity, forget about fuel. The only concern now is just if you’ll make it, if you’re going to live,” said Nebal Farsakh, a spokesperson for the Palestinian Red Crescent in Gaza City, as she broke into heaving sobs. — AP News, October 13
On October 9, the Israeli Minister of Defense announced a “complete siege” of Gaza, whose people he called “animals”:
We are putting a complete siege on Gaza. No electricity, no food, no water, no gas, it’s all closed. We are fighting animals and are acting accordingly.
Amnesty International called the blockade “illegal and inhumane”. On October 10, the United Nations said Office of the High Commissioner of Human Rights (OHCHR) directly rejected this policy as illegal under international law:
“The imposition of sieges that endanger the lives of civilians by depriving them of goods essential for their survival is prohibited under international humanitarian law,” the High Commissioner said. Any restrictions on the movement of people and goods to implement a siege must be justified by military necessity or may otherwise amount to collective punishment.
Israel has forced millions of people into desperate thirst. Since October 9:
Israel cut all water supplies to Gaza
Israel blocked all fuel imports. That halted Gaza’s single power plant.
Israel blocked all power imports. That halted all three Gazan desalination plants.
Israel has bombed multiple water wells, water reservoirs, and pumping stations. This is a war crime.
Gaza relies on Israel for its water supplies.
For most Gazans, water has run out. On October 14, the AP reported: “When water does trickle from pipes, the meager flow lasts no more than 30 minutes each day and is so contaminated with sewage and seawater that it’s undrinkable.”
To survive, according to WHO guidelines, adult males must drink 3.7 liters and adult females 2.7 liters of water per day. Of seven Gazans interviewed by the AP, all reported drinking less than 0.5 liters per day – and urinate once every day or once every two days.
On October 14, the UN Relief Works Agency (UN RWA)’s spokesperson demanded an end to the water blockade:
It has become a matter of life and death. It is a must; fuel needs to be delivered now into Gaza to make water available for 2 million people. We need to truck fuel into Gaza now. Fuel is the only way for people to have safe drinking water. If not, people will start dying of severe dehydration, among them young children, the elderly and women. Water is now the last remaining lifeline. I appeal for the siege on humanitarian assistance to be lifted now.
Israel’s policies will kill thousands of Gazan through thirst.
Israel is ethnically cleansing Gaza.
Israel has displaced over 1 million people
The mass expulsion of over 1 million people in a day is ethnic cleansing. The UN has already said this is “impossible” and will have “devastating humanitarian consequences.” We have to stop ignoring the thousands of Palestinian lives lost and millions at stake! We must use all diplomatic tools stop this. — Ilhan Omar, October 13
Between 7 and 14 October, Israeli bombs and bullets have displaced over 1 million people:
Israel’s military was causing mass displacement in fact. Early in October 13, Israel made this mass displacement official policy, when it ordered all 1.1 million people in North Gaza to flee to South Gaza within 24 hours. Restated, Israel has forced 47% of Gazan civilians to abandon their homes within 1 day:
In response, the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Human Affairs (UN OCHA)’s Secretary General stated: “The United Nations considers it impossible for such a movement to take place without devastating humanitarian consequences.” The United Nations World Health Organization (WHO) wrote that “evacuation orders by Israel to hospitals in northern Gaza are a death sentence for the sick and injured”.
After the 1948 Arab League-Israel War, Israel refused to allow displaced Palestinians to return to their homes. (About 1 in 2 Palestinians were expelled from British Palestine after the war.) As a result, this is the second time that Israel has used mass displacement to achieve ethnic cleansing, as the New York Times describes:
Many Gazans chose not to heed the evacuation order, saying that the south was no safer than the north, and that they would rather die at home. They also feared that those who left their homes would not be allowed back, a repeat of the 1948 mass displacement of more than 700,000 Palestinians who were either expelled or fled their homes in present-day Israel and were never allowed to return.
The 1948 ethnic cleansing is now known as the Nakba. Israel has yet to accept any Palestinian right of return – a human right that they consider a negotiating point.
Israel’s 24-hour mass displacement order, combined with extremely overloaded civilian services, has displaced so many civilians that the UN OCHA lost count (“the exact number is unknown”). The UN RWA estimated the number of displaced at “nearly 1 million people”.
On October 13, the UN OCHA spokesperson condemned this action:
The order to evacuate 1.1 million people from northern Gaza defies the rules of war and basic humanity.
Gaza is under intense bombardment. Roads and homes have been reduced to rubble. There is nowhere safe to go.
Forcing scared and traumatized civilians, including women and children, to move from one densely populated area to another, without even a pause in the fighting and without humanitarian support, is dangerous and outrageous.
Without safe passage and access to basic services, such mass displacement of civilians will have catastrophic humanitarian consequences and long- term implications.
Gazans are not free to leave. Every border crossing has been closed. When Netanyahu says Palestinians must “get out now”, he gives them nowhere to go.
From October 9 onward, Israel has built up an enormous number of tanks and troops on the border of Gaza. A ground invasion of Gaza is likely, which will displace and kill even more Gazans – and allow Israel to permanently occupy the territory, if they wish to make this mass displacement permanent.
Israeli policies have forced over a million people from their homes. They may never be allowed to return.
Israel is ethnically cleansing Gaza.
Summary
In short:
Israel is bombing Gazan housing without respect for civilian life, which violates the laws of war
Israel is preventing Gazan civilians from getting enough water to live, which violates international law
Israel has forcibly displaced 47% of Gaza residents (1 million people) in just 7 days
If you heard this about any other country, you would instantly recognize it as ethnic cleansing. The US justified NATO intervention in Serbia and Kosovo because about 230,000 people had been displaced.
What has the United States done?
The United States considers Israel one of its closest allies.
Unfortunately, the United States has done very little to oppose the ethnic cleansing in Gaza.
For most of the past week, Biden has given near-unconditional support for Israel.
Yesterday was the first day that Biden made any meaningful ask of Netanyahu: He should "look out for civilians" and does not support proposals to mass-relocate Palestinians in Gaza to Egypt's Sinai peninsula.
Today was the first day that the US pushed back on Israeli war crimes in any meaningful way: Allegedly because of an agreement between Netanyahu and Biden, Israel restored some water supply ONLY to South Gaza. Many Gazans have called this move a “distraction”, because most of the pipelines into Gaza have been destroyed by Israeli bombing.
This is better than nothing. But the United States has fallen (and almost certainly will fall) far, far short of what’s necessary to stop Israel's ethnic cleansing.
In a sane world, the US President would, at minimum, be condemning Israel's targeting of civilians, hospitals, and water infrastructure; condemning Israel's total blockade; condemning Israel's mass deportation; and condemning Israel's apartheid.
In a better world, the United States would support an egalitarian one-state solution (if possible) or a two-state solution (otherwise) -- and would withhold aid to Israel until it does so.
Instead, Biden has repeatedly justified Israeli Zionism and the Israeli military response. For example, Biden stated the following on October 10:
I told [Netanyahu] if the United States experienced what Israel is experiencing, our response would be swift, decisive, and overwhelming. [....]
[L]et there be no doubt: The United States has Israel’s back. We will make sure the Jewish and democratic State of Israel can defend itself today, tomorrow, as we always have. It’s as simple as that.
Even worse, Biden will soon introduce a bill that combines military aid to Ukraine, Taiwan, and Israel and funding for a border wall.
The United States already provides $3.7 billion in military aid to Israel each year.
If the United States fails to restrain Israel from doing ethnic cleansing -- or actively fund that violence -- then we will be complicit in its crimes.
What can you do?
If you want to fight against Israeli ethnic cleansing in Gaza, here's what you can do:
Donate to the Palestinian Children's Relief Fund (PCRF), which goes directly to keeping Palestinian children alive.
Call your Congresspeople:
For Democratic Socialists of America (DSA) members: Send an email to Congress and sign up to phonebank DSA members to ask them to call their Congresspeople -- and to demand No Money for Massacres: October 16, October 17, October 18
Everyone else: Use this Jewish Voice for Peace (JVP) dialer to automatically call your Representative & Senators -- and demand no genocide against Palestinians!
And, of course: You should join the DSA.
If you'd like to read more about Palestinian repression by Israel, check out Palestine: A Socialist Introduction, a free Haymarket book by DSA members Sumaya Awad and brian bean.
Fight against ethnic cleansing. Fight for a better world.
What do you think Israel’s response should be?