Advocates are reigniting calls for an arms embargo on Israel after landmark findings that Israel is committing genocide.

“My colleagues can no longer deny that this is genocide,” said Rep. Rashida Tlaib (D-Michigan). “We must follow our own U.S. laws. We need an Arms Embargo now.”

On Thursday, Amnesty released a sprawling report determining that Israel’s assault of Gaza amounts to genocide, citing Israel’s relentless attacks, blocking of humanitarian aid, targeting of health and other basic infrastructure, forced displacement of 90 percent of Gaza’s population, and more.

Amnesty is the first major international humanitarian organization to outright label Israel’s actions as a genocide. The group was also one of the first major human rights organizations to label Israel’s violent occupation and oppression of Palestine as apartheid, back in 2022.

The human rights group, one of the largest in the world, specifically called out the U.S. as a major collaborator in the genocide due to the Biden administration’s policy of sending Israel weapons with zero red lines. Just last week, despite Israel’s clear, ongoing campaign of ethnic cleansing in northern Gaza, reports emerged of the Biden administration advancing yet another sale of weapons to Israel worth $680 million.

  • Keeponstalin@lemmy.worldOP
    8·
    14 days ago

    You’re in denial. Here’s a list of resources to understand how it’s a genocide. You’re also mistaking the ICC, which prosecutes people, with the ICJ, which prosecutes Countries.

    “Here in Deir al-Balah, it’s like an apocalypse. There is no room for you to pitch a tent; you have to set it up near the coast… You have to protect your children from insects, from the heat, and there is no clean water, no toilets, all while the bombing never stops. You feel like you are subhuman here.”

    • Mohammed, a 42-year-old father of three, speaking in June 2024 about his experience of displacement from Rafah to Deir al-Balah governorate

    Israel/Occupied Palestinian Territory: ‘You Feel Like You Are Subhuman’: Israel’s Genocide Against Palestinians in Gaza

    Israel's Genocide on Occupied Palestine

    On 26 January 2024, the ICJ said that it was plausible that Israel had breached the Genocide Convention. As an emergency measure, it ordered Israel ensure that its army refrained from genocidal acts against Palestinians.

    The ICJ reported, as part of its decisions in March and May, that the situation in Gaza had deteriorated and that Israel had failed to abide by its order in January.

    So, when we look at the actions taken, the dropping of thousands and thousands of bombs in a couple of days, including phosphorus bombs, as we heard, on one of the most densely populated areas around the world, together with these proclamations of intent, this indeed constitutes genocidal killing, which is the first act, according to the convention, of genocide. And Israel, I must say, is also perpetrating act number two and three — that is, causing serious bodily or mental harm, and creating condition designed to bring about the destruction of the group by cutting off water, food, supply of energy, bombing hospitals, ordering the fast evictions of hospitals, which the World Health Organization has declared to be, quote, “a death sentence.” So, we’re seeing the combination of genocidal acts with special intent. This is indeed a textbook case of genocide.

    More than 800 scholars of international law and genocide have signed a public statement arguing that the Israeli military may be committing genocidal acts against Palestinians in the Gaza Strip as the total siege and relentless airstrikes continue to inflict devastation on the occupied territory.

    An independent United Nations expert warned Monday that “Israel’s genocidal violence risks leaking out of Gaza and into the occupied Palestinian territory as a whole” as Western governments, corporations, and other institutions keep up their support for the Israeli military, which stands accused of grave war crimes in the Gaza Strip and West Bank.

    Our documentation encompasses over 500 incitements of violence and genocidal incitement, appearing in the forms of social media posts, television interviews, and official statements from Israeli politicians, army personnel, journalists, and other influential personalities.

    I, Lee Mordechai, a historian by profession and an Israeli citizen, bear witness in this document to the situation in Gaza as events are unfolding. The enormous amount of evidence I have seen, much of it referenced later in this document, has been enough for me to believe that Israel is committing genocide against the Palestinian population in Gaza. I explain why I chose to use the term below. Israel’s campaign is ostensibly its reaction to the Hamas massacre of Oct. 7, 2023, in which war crimes and crimes against humanity were committed within the context of the longstanding conflict between Israelis and Palestinians that can be dated back to 1917 or 1948 (or other dates). In all cases, historical grievances and atrocities do not justify additional atrocities in the present. Therefore, I consider Israel’s response to Hamas’ actions on Oct. 7 utterly disproportionate and criminal.

    Others: AP News, Time, Reuters, Vox, CBC

    Deliberate Attacks on Civilians

    Israel deliberately targets civilian areas. From in general with the Dahiya Doctrine to multiple systems deployed in Gaza to do so:

    Israel also targets Israeli Soldiers and Civilians to prevent them being leveraged as hostages, known as the Hannibal Directive. Which was also used on Oct 7th.

    • Rapidcreek@lemmy.world
      18·
      18 days ago

      You can take this data to the ICC. Other lawyers have, but they did determine genocide as far as I am aware. Maybe you know better.

      • Keeponstalin@lemmy.worldOP
        5·
        18 days ago

        You can actually look at the evidence for once. Read the executive summary or skip to chapter 5, but read something. If you got a problem with the report, quote it and explain why instead of dismissing it for no reason other than you don’t want to believe it.

          • Keeponstalin@lemmy.worldOP
            21·
            18 days ago

            You are not, nor are you an expert, nor have you done your own investigation. If you genuinely cared about the humanity and well-being of the Palestinian people, you would take these reports seriously and read them to find out exactly what is happening. It’s not normal to dehumanize a people to the point of denying a genocide, hope you get well soon. Empathy is the most important aspect of understanding intersectionality, to recognize and take the perspective of other people facing forms of oppression. There have been plenty of genocides that the ICJ and ICC have not recognized, for one reason or another. That does not make them any less of a genocide. It’s the facts on the ground that matter. And that’s exactly the point of these reports from Amnesty and Euro-Med Monitor.

            • Rapidcreek@lemmy.world
              13·
              18 days ago

              My message has always been to you that breaking the law of genocide is up to the ICC to decide. That won’t change. You want to take another run at it, it’s up to you.