B’Tselem, the Israeli Information Center for Human Rights in the Occupied Territories, and Physicians for Human Rights—Israel, published separate reports on July 28 charging that Israel is carrying out “genocide” in Gaza. Both reports urge, demand, insist that the international community take action to force Israel to put an immediate end to this crime.
“The responsibility lies first and foremost with Israel, but also with the international community, which must use every means to stop the crimes that are still taking place just 70 kilometers from here,” Orly Noy, chair of B’Tselem’s Executive Board, said in releasing the report.
The reports became leading news item in the English editions of both Haaretz and the Times of Israel. “The rights groups, while prominent and respected internationally, are considered in Israel to be on the political fringe, and their views are not representative of the vast majority of Israelis. But having the allegation of genocide come from Israeli voices shatters a taboo in a society that has been reticent to criticize Israel’s conduct in Gaza,” Times of Israel noted.
B’Tselem’s “Our GENOCIDE report urges: “This is the time to save those who have not yet been lost forever, and use every means available under international law to stop Israel’s genocide of the Palestinians.” It warns that there is a “clear and present danger that the genocide will not remain confined to the Gaza Strip, and that the actions and underlying mindset driving it may be extended to other areas … where Palestinians live under Israeli rule.”
Physicians for Human Rights–Israel writes that its report, “Destruction of Conditions of Life: A Health Analysis of the Gaza Genocide,” “documents the Israeli assault for what it is: a deliberate, cumulative, and ongoing dismantling of Gaza’s healthcare system—and of the population’s ability to survive. Its meaning: genocide.
