Since its foundation in 1948, Israel has been accused of carrying out genocide against Palestinians during the Israeli–Palestinian conflict. A wide consensus of scholars have concluded that Israel's actions during the Gaza war since 2023 constitute genocide, although debate continues over whether Israel's treatment of Palestinians since the Nakba—prior to 2023—also constitutes genocide, and whether such actions are continuous or limited to specific periods or events. This treatment has also been characterised as "slow-motion genocide", as well as a corollary or expression of settler colonialism and indigenous land theft. Those who believe Israel's actions constitute genocide point to the entrenched anti-Palestinian racism, anti-Arab racism, Islamophobia and genocidal rhetoric in Israeli society, and point to events such as the Nakba, the Sabra and Shatila massacre, the blockade of the Gaza Strip, the 2014 Gaza War, and the 2023–present Gaza war as particularly pertinent genocidal episodes. International law and genocide scholars have accused Israeli officials of using dehumanising language. On 29 December 2023, South Africa filed a case against Israel at the International Court of Justice, alleging that Israel's conduct in Gaza during the 2023 war amounted to genocide. South Africa asked the ICJ to issue provisional measures, including ordering Israel to halt its military campaign in Gaza. The Israeli government agreed to defend itself at the ICJ proceedings, while also denouncing South Africa's actions as "disgraceful" and accusing it of abetting "the modern heirs of the Nazis". South Africa's case has been supported by a number of countries. On 26 January 2024, the ICJ issued a preliminary ruling finding that the claims in South Africa's filing were "plausible" and issued an order to Israel requiring them to take all measures within their power to prevent acts of genocide and to allow basic humanitarian services into Gaza. Israel and the United States have rejected the assertion that the former is engaging in genocide. While some scholars describe Palestinians as victims of genocide, others argue that what took place was ethnic cleansing, politicide, spaciocide, cultural genocide or similar. Some critics of the accusation have argued that charges of Israel committing genocide are commonly made by anti-Zionists with the aim of demonising or delegitimising Israel.
History
20th century
Nakba
The Nakba was the violent displacement and dispossession of the Palestinian people, along with the destruction of their society, culture, identity, political rights, and national aspirations. The Nakba began during the 1948 Palestine war; the term ongoing Nakba has been used to describe the continued persecution and displacement of Palestinians by Israel throughout the Palestinian territories. Palestinians continued to be expelled after the war, and more Palestinian towns and villages were destroyed, with new Israeli settlements established in their place. Israel has been accused of carrying out forced displacement (ethnic cleansing), looting, psychological warfare, and rape and sexual violence during the Nakba. During the foundational events of the Nakba in 1948, dozens of massacres targeting Arabs were conducted and about 400 Arab-majority towns and villages were depopulated. Many of these areas were either completely destroyed or repopulated by Jewish residents and given new Hebrew names. Approximately 750,000 Palestinian Arabs (about half of Palestine's Arab population) fled from their homes or were expelled by Zionist militias and later the Israeli army. In 2010, historians Martin Shaw and Omer Bartov debated whether the 1948 Nakba should be regarded as a genocide, with Shaw arguing that it could and with Bartov disagreeing. Daud Abdullah, the former Deputy Secretary General of the Muslim Council of Britain, has said: "Given the declared intent of the Zionist leaders, this wholesale destruction and depopulation of Palestinian villages fit[s] easily with the definition of genocide as cited in the Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide." Australian historian John Docker has also argued that the Nakba is a case of genocide. Several scholars have written that Palestinians suffered ethnic cleansing during the Nakba, but that they did not consider the event to have been genocide.
Naksa
Academic Clare Brandabur includes the Naksa (known as the 1967 Palestinian exodus) in the actions conducted by Israel that show a pattern that seeks the "destruction of the national pattern of the oppressed group". This view is supported by later academics as well. The Naksa was the expulsion of around 280,000 to 325,000 Palestinians during and in the aftermath of the Six-Day War, including the razing of numerous Palestinian villages.
Sabra and Shatila massacre
… excerpt ends here. Continue reading the full article.
