The Unimaginable Word
There are words so weighted with the horrors of history that they are reserved for the most extreme of circumstances. For decades, the word “genocide” has been one such term, a moral and legal absolute. This week, in a move that signals a profound and historic rupture within Israeli society, two of the nation’s most respected and long-standing human rights organizations did what was once unthinkable: they used that word to describe the actions of their own government in Gaza.
In separate, meticulously detailed reports released Monday, B’Tselem and Physicians for Human Rights-Israel (PHRI) each concluded that Israel’s conduct in the war in Gaza constitutes a genocide against the Palestinian people under international law. “In these dark times, it is especially important to call things by their name,” the organizations said in a joint statement, “while calling on this crime to stop immediately.”
The Israeli government immediately and strongly rejected the accusations. “Our defence forces target terrorists and never civilians,” a spokesman said. “Hamas is responsible for the suffering in Gaza.” This stark and total opposition—a government denying the charge, while its own civil society bears witness—sets the stage for a painful, internal reckoning, a battle over the very soul and definition of the nation.
Part I: “It Breaks Something Basic” – The Personal and Moral Cost
Before diving into the mountains of legal and factual evidence, it is essential to understand the human weight of this declaration. This is not a gleeful political attack from external enemies; it is a pained, reluctant, and soul-searching conclusion reached by Israeli citizens about their own state. The emotional core of this moment was captured in the words of B’Tselem’s executive director, Yuli Novak, who described the report to the BBC as “one that we never imagined we would have to write.”
Her reflection on the process reveals the profound personal and moral cost of this act of truth-telling. “To really understand that your country, your collective, is actually committing genocide, that is a very hard mental and personal process,” Novak said. “It breaks something very basic in your understanding about who we are.”
This is the key to understanding the gravity of these reports. They are not born of malice, but of misery. They represent the agonizing outcome of a moral and intellectual struggle, a process in which the evidence became so overwhelming that the most terrible conclusion became the only possible one. Dr. Guy Shalev, the executive director of PHRI, acknowledged the very real fear of verbal and physical violence in Israel for publishing these findings. Yet, he concluded, “Silence in the face of genocide is not an option.” This is not an accusation; it is a lament, a cry of conscience from within the heart of a nation at war with itself.
Part II: The Clinical Diagnosis – A Health-Centered Case
The first of the two reports, from Physicians for Human Rights-Israel, makes its case not through political rhetoric, but through the cold, methodical language of a clinical diagnosis. The paper argues that Israel’s actions satisfy Article II(c) of the Genocide Convention: “deliberately inflicting on the group conditions of life calculated to bring about its physical destruction.” PHRI’s evidence for this is a grim catalog of the “systematic dismantling of Gaza’s health and life-sustaining systems.”
The report details a cascading collapse, beginning with the bombing and forced evacuation of major hospitals in northern Gaza. As the displaced population fled south, they overwhelmed the remaining facilities, which were then subjected to further bombardment and siege. The destruction of Al-Shifa and Nasser hospitals, Gaza’s largest medical complexes, is presented as the decisive blow to the system. The paper also provides devastating specifics on the human cost, documenting the targeted killing of over 1,580 healthcare workers and the unlawful detention of 339 more, with survivors reporting systematic torture. Dr. Adnan al-Bursh, the head of orthopedics at Al-Shifa, was detained during a raid and later died in an Israeli prison from what was reportedly torture and neglect.
This direct assault is compounded by a policy of obstruction. PHRI documents how the blockade on medical evacuations has trapped over 14,000 critically ill patients. It details how the weaponization of aid and the deliberate targeting of food and water infrastructure have led to catastrophic malnutrition, with thousands of children diagnosed in May 2025 alone. The conclusion is stark: this is not collateral damage; it is a calculated strategy to create unlivable conditions.
Part III: The Systemic Crime – A Broader Analysis
The second report, from B’Tselem, takes PHRI’s clinical diagnosis and widens the lens, arguing that the events in Gaza are the horrifying culmination of a decades-long systemic process. Titled simply “Genocide,” their analysis expands the charge both geographically and thematically.
Geographically, B’Tselem argues that while the violence is at its most extreme in Gaza, it is part of a “regime-wide” assault, and they methodically document the escalating violence in the West Bank and within Israel itself. They cite over 900 Palestinians killed by Israeli forces in the West Bank since October 2023, the arming of settler militias, and the demolition of over 1,500 Palestinian structures. This, they argue, is evidence of a single, unifying logic of control and dispossession being applied across all territories.
Thematically, the paper broadens the definition of destruction. It documents the “social, political, and cultural destruction” of Palestinian society—the total collapse of the education system for over 600,000 students, the systematic targeting and killing of over 160 journalists, and the deliberate destruction of over 200 historical and religious heritage sites, including ancient mosques, churches, and archives.
Crucially, B’Tselem provides the historical context, arguing that the current crisis is the result of the “foundations of the regime” built over 70 years: a system of apartheid, demographic engineering, and a pervasive dehumanization of Palestinians that framed them as an “existential threat.” The horrific Hamas-led attack of October 7th, which they condemn as a war crime, acted as a “triggering event” that allowed a far-right Israeli government to activate these latent genocidal preconditions and unleash its “coordinated onslaught to destroy Palestinian society.”
Part IV: The Architecture of Intent
For a crime to be genocide, it requires dolus specialis—a specific intent to destroy a protected group, in whole or in part. Both organizations argue that this intent is not hidden, but has been openly and repeatedly declared by the architects of the war.
The reports cite a litany of statements from the highest levels of the Israeli government. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s invocation of the biblical command to “Remember what Amalek has done to you”—a reference to the total annihilation of an enemy people—is presented as a key piece of evidence. Defense Minister Yoav Gallant’s October 9th declaration of a “complete siege” on Gaza, stating, “There will be no electricity, no food, no fuel, everything is closed… We are fighting human animals and we are acting accordingly,” is cited as a direct order to create the unlivable conditions described in Article II(c).
The reports are filled with dozens more such statements from ministers, Knesset members, and military commanders, including calls to “blot out” cities and endorsements of starving the civilian population. Major General (res.) Giora Eiland, who drafted the influential “Generals’ Plan” for Gaza, is quoted as stating that “severe epidemics in the southern part of the Gaza Strip will bring victory closer.” Taken together, the papers argue, these public declarations form an undeniable architecture of intent, revealing a clear and coordinated plan to destroy the Palestinian people in Gaza as a group.
A Demand for Accountability
The evidence presented by these two Israeli organizations, drawn from months of painstaking documentation, is overwhelming. It is not an academic exercise, but a moral and legal indictment that demands a response. The Israeli government’s blanket denials, in the face of such detailed testimony from its own civil society experts, ring hollow.
Words are not enough. Temporary halts in military action, later resumed, are not enough. Pledges of future investigations are not enough. The gravity of this charge, coming from within, requires a commensurate response.
Therefore, the global community, now armed with the testimony of Israel’s own conscience, has the right and the responsibility to demand an immediate and unequivocal choice from the Prime Minister: either he undertakes a complete, verifiable, and permanent cessation of every policy of destruction outlined in these reports—from the siege and the targeting of hospitals to the obstruction of aid—or he must resign his office.
For a nation founded in the shadow of one genocide, the charge of committing another, brought forth by its own people, is a moral crisis that cannot be ignored. The time for denial is over. The time for accountability is now.
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