War Crimes Between The Lines: All Civilians Everywhere Should Be Alarmed About The Precedents Set Today.

During the continuing dehumanisation in Gaza, the world debates: Are Palestinian civilians casualties of war or victims of genocide? Whether or not, the Israeli government is proven to have genocidal intent, every one of us should be concerned with the degree of atrocities taking place in the name of defence. Human rights exist for all or they exist for no one.

One could say I have no skin in the game. I am not an Israeli, not a Palestinian, not even in the Middle East, not Muslim, not Jewish. As an American expat, my taxes are still going towards missiles, as they have my entire life, but who am I to question? On the very surface, what identity I have in common with these groups is simply this: I am a human being and a civilian.

Civilian identity is enough to signal high alarm when Israeli government officials make the brazen statements like:

“I have ordered a complete siege on the Gaza Strip. There will be no electricity, no food, no fuel, everything is closed…” — Defence Minister Yoav Gallant

“There are no non-combatants in Gaza” said Jerusalem Affairs and Heritage Minister Amichai Eliyahu, adding that humanitarian aid would constitute “a failure”.

The finger of genocidal intent is pointed back and forth to justify how much destruction of civilian life is allowed during these massacres and the strategies IDF are allowed to employ. While many point to the fact that Hamas’s charter makes a clear call for ethnic cleansing of Jews, others say that the charter was changed in 2017. The Israeli government avoids the accusations by pointing the finger of genocidal blame at Hamas, using the argument that Hamas is “using the Palestinians as a human shield”.

The definition of Genocide by the UN is defined as follows: “acts committed with intent to destroy, in whole or in part, a national, ethnical, racial or religious group.” The UN website states that ethnic cleansing is… “… a purposeful policy designed by one ethnic or religious group to remove by violent and terror-inspiring means the civilian population of another ethnic or religious group from certain geographic areas.”