Israel Committing Genocide? | Daily Writeup | Opinions
The following article of CSS Current Affairs is solved by Tehreem Zafar under the supervision of Howfiv’s Pakistan Affairs Coaches. She learnt how to attempt 20 marks question and essay writing from Sir Syed Kazim Ali, Pakistan’s best CSS and PMS English essay and precis teacher with the highest success rate of his students. This solved past paper question is attempted on the pattern taught by Sir to his students, scoring the highest marks in compulsory and optional subjects for years, and uploaded to help aspirants understand how to crack a topic or question, how to write relevantly, what coherence is, and how to include and connect ideas, opinions, and suggestions to score the maximum.
Outline
1- Introduction
2- Defining and explaining the term “Genocide”
3- Arguments proving that Israel is committing genocide in Palestine
- ✓ Years-long military standing in Palestine
- Evidence: Clause (A) of Article 6 of the International Criminal Court (ICC) explains that killing the members of a certain group with an intention to eliminate the whole national, racial, or ethnic group falls into the crime of genocide.
- ✓ Massive increase in Israeli settler’s barbarities against local Palestinians
- Evidence: According to the UN records of Israeli violence in 2023, “almost 835 Israeli settler attacks against Palestinians in 2023 are recorded by the UN, whereas only 203 attacks are being observed from October 7th to October 31st.”
- ✓ Inhumane, alienated attitudes of Israeli leadership towards Palestinians
- Evidence: As per the UNHRC records, IDF Maj. Gen. Ghassan Alian said on October 10th, 2023. “Human animals must be treated like this. There will be no electricity and water in Gaza; there will only be destruction.”
- ✓ Israel’s launching of Operation Protective Edge
- Evidence: To illustrate, Al-Haq, an independent Palestinian human rights organization, also filed a case in the ICC against Israel’s genocidal crimes that were inflicted upon Palestinian civilians during the offensive
4- Ways to end the ongoing genocidal activities in Palestine
- ✓ To put economic embargoes on Israel
- ✓ To escalate political pressure on Israel
5- Critical Analysis
6-Conclusion
Introduction
Nothing destroys the soft image of a state the way the commitment of genocide -one of the most heinous crimes- does. Stepping on the soil of conflicted Israel-Palestine territory, a massacre followed by the wide-ranging bombardment of the Gaza Strip, a ground incursion of the West Bank, and a mass killing of Palestinians explicitly demonstrates that Israel is committing genocide in Palestine. According to Francesca Albanese of the UN Human Rights Council (UNHRC), “the genocide in Gaza is actually the extreme level long-standing settler-colonial process of erasure of the native Palestinians.” Various arguments strengthen the debate that Israel is committing ethnic cleansing in the West Bank and Gaza. To illustrate, long-lived military standing in Palestine and a massive increase in Israeli settlers’ attacks against local Palestinians demonstrate mass murder in the Arab land. Overall, there is high time for human rights advocacy in Palestine by the top-notch humanitarian institutes.
Defining and explaining the term “Genocide.”
Before diving deep into the main arguments, it is highly important to define the main term “genocide” and explain a bit of its history. In simple terms, genocide can be defined as inflicting a certain kind of heinous act or acts to exterminate a group or race- as a whole- from a specific piece of land. Historically, the term “genocide” was used or coined by a Jewish-Polish scholar back in 1944 named Raphael Lemkin. Initially, the term was used after the mass killing of Armenians by the Ottoman Empire and then the expulsion of Jews from the USSR, Hungary, and Romania. In official words, “genocide”, according to the Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide under the Genocide Convention in 1948, involves the acts that are committed to eradicating a nation, ethnic group, race, or religious line with a pure thought of killing its members, inflicting serious harm –physical or mental, destructing physical infrastructures, and putting birth preventive measures. The official definition later became part of Article 6 of the International Criminal Court (ICC).
Arguments proving that Israel is committing genocide in Palestine
- Years-long military standing in Palestine
To begin with, long-lived military standing in Palestine is the most important point that broadens the main thought that Israel is committing genocide in Palestine. Explaining further, the short-term need for armed forces occupation in conflict-prone areas like Palestine or Kashmir is ultimate, as designed by international laws; however, Israel’s elongated military occupation and destruction of native Palestinians since 1948- more than 50 years- seems as the genocidal act. To elaborate, Clause (a) of Article 6 of the International Criminal Court (ICC) explains that killing the members of a certain group with an intention to eliminate the whole national, racial, or ethnic group falls into the crime of genocide. Hence, the lifelong military occupation of Palestinians has also been marked as a sign of genocide.
- Massive increase in Israeli settlers’ barbarities against local Palestinians
Next to it, the constant, massive rise in brutalities against local Palestinians is another argument that strengthens the statement that Israel is committing genocide in Gaza. Adding more to it, the Israeli atrocities against civilians range from intense, regular bombing to forcible shifting of Gaza residents from their hometowns. According to the UN records of Israeli violence in 2023, “almost 835 Israeli settler attacks against Palestinians in 2023 are recorded by the UN, whereas only 203 attacks are being observed from October 7th to October 31st.” Thus, the striking increase in the Israeli settlers’ killings of Gazans to wipe them off from the Arab land is a clear indication of genocide.
- Inhumane, alienated attitudes of Israeli leadership towards Palestinians
Moving ahead, the constant inhumane and alienated attitudes of Israeli leadership add fuel to the fire by not paying heed to Palestinians’ treatment, ultimately proving their cruel mindset of genocidal commitment in the Gaza and West Bank. Advancing more, the “eliminate everything” attitude of right-wing Israeli leaders and army men, like Israeli PM Benjamin Netanyahu, Defense Minister Yoav Gallant, President Isaac Herzog, and IDF Major General Ghassan Alian against the Gazans also explicitly defines their genocidal approach. For instance, as per the UNHRC records, the words of Mr Ghassan Alian, who is Major General of IDF, are “Human animals must be treated like this. There will be no electricity and water in Gaza; there will only be destruction.” All in all, similar ruthless behaviour has also been exhibited by other Israeli leaders toward Palestinians, highlighting their eventual genocidal intentions.
- Israel’s launching of Operation Protective Edge
Last but not least, another major historic Israeli military operation in Palestine back in 2014 has also been considered as its genocide commitment in Gaza. Israel’s major offensive, also titled “Operation Protective Edge”, was launched in the summer of 2014 against Gaza, resulting in the massive killing of more than two thousand Gazans. Prominently, it was assured as a violation of international human rights, which are mentioned in the Geneva Conventions by many famous international human rights bodies. As an illustration, Al-Haq, an independent Palestinian human rights organization, also filed a case in the ICC against Israel’s genocidal crimes that were inflicted upon Palestinian civilians during the offensive. Therefore, it is clearly evident that the Israeli Operation Protective Edge was a genocidal attempt of the Gazan victims.
Ways to end the ongoing genocidal activities in Palestine
- To put economic embargoes on Israel
The never-ending Israeli atrocities on Palestinians raise the immense need for the global world to put economic embargoes on Israel. As Israel has reached the pinnacle of brutalities, especially on Palestinian children, it is high time that the world shut its economic doors to Israel by halting its trade activities of crude oil, nuclear machinery, and transportation vehicles, showing humanitarian support to the Palestinians. The step must be advanced by Islamic countries first, such as Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates (UAE). All in all, putting economic barriers on Israel the world powers states is unavoidable as Israel has reached beyond all limits.
- To escalate political pressure on Israel
Other than the economic sanctions, it is equally important to curtail Israeli violent actions in the Palestinian land through some political crackdown against the Israeli government. To elaborate further, the unbearable beheading and burning of human lives of Palestinians shows that Israel is on the mission of completely wiping out Palestinians from the Gaza Strip. However, the cruel behaviour of Israelites demands that big powers, especially the USA, must warn her through political voicing to end the Palestinian treatment in Gaza. The dire need for Israeli political blockade is a must as most of the human rights organizations have also failed to address this problem, so pressurizingIsrael through the strong states’ political means seems the only way out to end this terrible genocide.
Critical Analysis
To investigate critically, Israel has evidently committed genocide in Palestine. Israel, for decades, has dehumanized Palestinian society, damaged infrastructure, especially hospitals, educational institutes, mosques, and churches, and disrupted Gazan media- by killing the maximum number of their journalists, aiming for complete erasure of Palestinian masses from their Arab homeland. Even the Human Rights Watch Report has also confirmed that the Israeli Defense Forces (IDF) have used phosphorous-based weapons to set human bodies and Gazan buildings on fire. Last, there is no advocacy of human rights in Palestine, even by the world’s prominent human rights bodies, except a few; these atrocities demand the attention of humanitarian authorities to end Israeli attempts of genocide.
Conclusion
To conclude the debate, Israel has been committing genocide in Gaza for almost more than 50 years. Israeli genocidal impact is crystal clear from the prolonged military occupation of Palestinians, sadistic remarks of Israeli leaders against their barbarism on the people of Gaza, constant Israel settlers’ attacks to achieve forcible movement of the Palestinians, and extreme military operations to clean sweep the land of the West Bank. Thus, the Palestinian masses are in dire need of aid and a solution to their problems from international human rights institutions.
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