History teaches us that atrocities are too often recognized only after the fact. From the dispossession of Indigenous peoples, slavery, the Holocaust,

Image by Levi Meir Clancy.

History teaches us that atrocities are too often recognized only after the fact. From the dispossession of Indigenous peoples, slavery, the Holocaust, Srebrenica and Rwanda, became part of our collective conscience only after the full scale of the crimes could no longer be denied. Gaza genocide is following that same tragic script—except this time—the world is watching in real time.

Nearly two years into the wanton devastation, the International Association of Genocide Scholars (IAGS) announced on August 31st that Israel’s actions in Gaza meet the definition of genocide under UN Conventions. In light of world powers’ inaction amid famine and war crimes, the question is no longer whether genocide is taking place; but whether the 1948 UN Convention is enforced for some, and a lie for the rest.

The IAGS ruling transforms the genocide in Gaza from a polemic political debate into a legal fact. This is not merely an opinion but the scientific assessment of an international body composed of the world’s foremost experts on Genocide and war crimes. Its members represent the academic community that has studied all known genocides and war crimes. For such a body to speak with this level of clarity is extraordinary. It affirms what Palestinians, Israeli rights groups, international human rights organizations, Israeli Holocaust Scholar, and international jurists have long argued: Gaza is not a war zone; it’s a genocide field.

The live-streamed catastrophe in Gaza is unprecedented. As of May 2025, Israel had dropped more than 100,000 tons of explosives on an area of 365 km2. This is an astounding 548 pounds (250 Kilograms) per m2, or 11 ft2.

By comparison, the total bombs unleashed on Germany during World War II are estimated at 1,415,745 tons, or about 3.96 tons per km2. Gaza, by contrast, is only 0.001 of Germany’s area (357,022 km²). Yet Israel has dropped nearly seventy times more explosives on Gaza than the Allies, combined, inflicted on Germany—7.92 pounds per m2 in Germany versus 548 pounds per m2 in Gaza.

For another perspective, in a period of more than three and a half years, the U.S. dropped roughly 864,000 tons of bombs on North Vietnam with an area of 157,880 km2 during Operation Rolling Thunder, (ORT), between February 1965 to October 1968. Until now, ORT was the most intense air campaign in history. Meanwhile, Israel’s bombardment of Gaza, in less than two years and proportional to its size, exceeded the most intense bombing in history by one hundred times—5.5 pounds per m2 in Vietnam versus 548 in Gaza.

Gaza today stands as the most ruthlessly bombarded place in history. The devastation is multiplied many times over, not only by the far greater destructive power of modern explosives, but also by population density: 196 people per km² in Germany, 120 per km² in North Vietnam, and 6,300 per km² in Gaza. This means that every bomb aims to maim and murder civilians, in a captive population, confined and defenseless. By any moral measure, such systematic bombardment is not war, it is unadulterated textbook case of genocide. Thus, the IAGS declaration.

The result so far is more than 64,300 murdered Palestinians, 20,000 of which are children and thousands unaccounted for still buried under rubble. By September 5th, 376 had starved to death, including 134 children. In addition, over 161,000 have been injured, many suffering amputations, blindness, and permanent disabilities.

Entire neighborhoods, [92 percent](file:///Users/Admin/Document%20New/92%20per%20cent) of Gaza’s housing are destroyed or damaged. Almost all of Gaza’s 2.3 million residents have been forcibly displaced, some multiple times, moving between bombed-out ruins and tent camps. Survivors in Gaza no longer speak of homes, only of rubble and graves.

IAGS underscored Israel’s targeting of children, stressing that children are “essential to the survival of any group as such, since the physical destruction of the group is assured where it is unable to regenerate itself.”

In November 2024, the International Criminal Court (ICC) issued arrest warrants for Netanyahu and former Defense Minister Gallant on charges of crimes against humanity, including starvation of civilians. The International Court of Justice, in three separate rulings, confirmed it is “plausible” that Israel is committing genocide and ordered immediate access to food aid.

The ICC findings should have ended the debate. Under the Genocide Convention, states are obligated to prevent and stop genocide, not bankroll it. Nevertheless, Israel is enabled to continue the genocide with billions in arms, funding, and diplomatic shield from Joe Biden to Donald Trump. History will condemn who supply the planes and bombs that kill journalists, flattened schools, destroy hospitals and bury Gaza’s children under broken concrete. Trump can’t hide behind “Israel had total control of Congress” to escape his moral and legal accountability.

The IAGS resolution cuts through the excuses. It declares unequivocally that Israel is committing genocide. For too long, truth-tellers have been intellectually terrorized with accusations of antisemitism. When the world’s leading Holocaust and genocide scholars agree that this is genocide, weaponizing “antisemite” is exposed not only as dishonest, but as complicit in silencing free speech to shield the Israeli genocide and mass murder.

The post Crying Antisemite to Shield Israeli Genocide and Mass Murder appeared first on CounterPunch.org.

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