All those who clearly see that the continuation of the war is senseless and that the scale of mass killing and destruction in Gaza is enormous and therefore want to stop the inhuman suffering of more than two million people - must hope, even if secretly, that the International Court of Justice in The Hague in Thursday to issue a cease-fire order. It is not easy for an Israeli to want an order against his country that can lead to punitive measures, but is there another way to stop the war?
It is not easy to accept that your country is being sued by a state that knows something about unjust and evil regimes, and whose founder was a moral model for the whole world. It is not easy when you are accused by the Republic of South Africa of genocide allegedly committed by a country built on the ashes of the largest genocide in history.
It is no longer possible to suppress the fact that Israel is under suspicion for the most serious crimes against humanity and international law. Now we are no longer talking about occupation: we are talking about apartheid, resettlement, ethnic cleansing and genocide. Is there anything worse than that? I don't know of another country that has been accused of all that.
The accusations cannot be dismissed, even by invoking anti-Semitism. Even if some of the accusations are exaggerated or unfounded, the indifference with which they are spoken about here, along with the eternal blaming of the accuser, may be a way to deny or suppress them, but this cannot clear the name of Israel, and it is certainly not a path to healing and mending.
More than 20 were killed in three months, among them thousands of children and babies, the entire area was completely destroyed, and all this here does not raise suspicions of genocide. Incomprehensible statements by key figures that it is necessary to clear Gaza of its inhabitants or even eliminate these inhabitants give grounds for grave suspicion of the intention to carry out ethnic cleansing. Israel deserves to be judged for both.
Israel did not enter the war with the intention of committing genocide, there is no doubt about that, but even without the original intention, it is carrying it out on the ground. Every day that passes with hundreds of people killed strengthens the suspicion. In The Hague, they will have to prove their original intention, and they may not succeed in doing so. Does that absolve Israel?
The suspicion of the existence of plans for ethnic cleansing, which will not be discussed now, is even more well-founded. That intention is open and declared. Israel's defense line, according to which most of its ministers do not represent the government, is grotesque. I doubt anyone will take it seriously. If the transfer agent Becalel Smotrič does not represent the government, then what is he looking for in it? If Benjamin Netanyahu did not dismiss Itamar Ben Gvir, then how is he blameless as prime minister?
But there is an atmosphere in the Israeli public that should disturb us more than what is happening in The Hague. The zeitgeist consists in widespread legitimacy for committing war crimes. The ethnic cleansing of Gaza and then the West Bank is a topic that is openly argued for and against, while the mass killing of Gazans is not even raised as an issue in Israeli discourse.
The Gaza problem was created in 1948. It was created by Israel when it expelled hundreds of thousands of people. It was undoubtedly the ethnic cleansing of the south of the country. Israel has never claimed responsibility, and ministers are now calling for an end to the work in the Gaza Strip. It is painful to face the question of "the day after" which means that Israel will decide what will happen in Gaza. This shows that the spirit of the 48th did not die. This is what Israel did then and what it wants to do again today.
Let the International Court of Justice in The Hague decide whether there are sufficient grounds for a charge of genocide or other war crimes. From the point of view of conscience, the answer has already been given.
(Haaretz; Peščanik.net; translation from Hebrew: Alma Ferhat)
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