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This is an adapted excerpt from the Dec. 7 episode of “Ayman.”
On Thursday, Amnesty International, the world’s largest and most storied humanitarian organization, released a 297-page study titled “‘You Feel Like You Are Subhuman’: Israel’s Genocide Against Palestinians in Gaza.” The key word there is “genocide.”
In the 14 months since Israeli officials, like former Defense Minister Yoav Gallant, declared that no food, water, electricity or fuel would be allowed in the Gaza Strip — a remark made two days after Hamas’ Oct. 7 attack on Israel — that charge of genocide has been made against and fiercely denied by Israel and its supporters, including the United States.
Back in January, the International Court of Justice ruled that it was plausible that Israel was committing genocide in Gaza. Last month, the International Criminal Court issued arrest warrants for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Gallant for war crimes, marking the first time the ICC has done so against a Western ally of the United States.
While Amnesty International was the first international NGO to declare what Israel is doing as a genocide, other groups have meticulously documented the country’s alleged war crimes.
One of the legal scholars who advocated for these charges against Israeli leaders was Theodor Meron, a man who oversaw the world’s first genocide trials. Meron was once an Israeli diplomat, then an American judge, and was himself a survivor of the Nazi genocide of Jews.
Likewise, Aryeh Neier, founder of Human Rights Watch and one of the leading human rights experts in the world — also a Jewish refugee who fled Nazi Germany — told me back in June that, in his view, what Israel was doing in Gaza is a genocide.
They’re part of a growing list of genocide scholars and international law experts now using that word to describe Israel's actions. And while Amnesty International was the first nongovernmental organization to call it genocide, other groups such as Human Rights Watch and the Israeli group B’tselem have meticulously documented the country’s alleged war crimes, including using starvation as a weapon of war, committing torture and sodomy in Israeli prisons, deliberate attacks on civilians, among other charges.
One thing these reports and these court rulings have in common is that they use the words of Israeli leaders, such as Gallant’s declaration about food and water being kept out of Gaza, as evidence of Israel’s intentions. But that’s not all. Both Amnesty International and the International Court of Justice have cited similar sources to allege that Israel is committing war crimes: Israeli soldiers bragging about it on social media.
As the report states:
This is evidenced by Amnesty International’s analysis of 62 videos, audio recordings and photographs posted online showing Israeli soldiers in which they made calls for the destruction of Gaza or the denial of essential services to people in Gaza, or celebrated the destruction of Palestinian homes,
mosques, schools and universities, including through controlled demolitions, in some cases without apparent military necessity.
It continued:
Of these, 31 called orally or in writing for the annihilation, destruction, burning or “erasure” of Gaza, or used other similar rhetoric. The existence of a large number of these public videos and statements highlights not only systemic impunity but also the creation of an environment that emboldens, if not tacitly rewards, such behaviour.
After Amnesty International’s report was released, Israel’s Foreign Ministry stated on X: “The deplorable and fanatical organization Amnesty International has once again produced a fabricated report that is entirely false and based on lies.”
But this report adds to a growing consensus among some experts about what has happened in Gaza over the last 14 months. When people say that this is “the first livestreamed genocide in history,” it’s not just Palestinians filming their own destruction for the world to witness, it’s Israeli soldiers doing so as well.
Last week, The Washington Post published a visual story titled “Revenge, fire and destruction: A year of Israeli soldiers’ videos from Gaza.” The Post reported even more evidence of Israeli soldiers destroying the homes and neighborhoods of private citizens, and in some cases, admitting that there is no military purpose or justification for what they are doing. One soldier told the Post, “I took these videos to raise the morale of the people at home, and I don’t regret it for a moment.”
The paper also reported on a sick genre of images that has become all too common in the past 14 months: Israeli soldiers filming themselves playing with Palestinian women’s underwear or lingerie. Regarding that video, the Israeli military told NBC News, they’ve “taken action and will continue acting to identify misconduct and behavior that does not align with the expected morals and values of IDF soldiers.”
In the spring, an Israeli soldier was seen in a Palestinian university library in Gaza setting books on fire. Regarding this image, the Israeli military released a statement saying this was not consistent with their values and that they’d be opening an investigation.
One soldier told the Post, “I took these videos to raise the morale of the people at home, and I don’t regret it for a moment.”
We’ve also seen videos of Israeli soldiers destroying children’s toys and laughing at what was a Palestinian shop in Northern Gaza late last year. Regarding this video, the IDF told NBC News, “The behavior of the soldiers in the video is inappropriate and contrary to the values of the IDF," and pledged to review the case accordingly.
A day after the American election, a video began circulating online of an Israeli soldier appearing to fire his gun indiscriminately and adding his commentary on the election results, remarking, “This is on the occasion of Donald Trump’s presidency.” Once again, the Israeli military told NBC News, “The soldier’s actions are severe and do not align with the values and orders of the IDF. The soldier will be disciplined by his commanders.”
But despite all of this — despite an arrest warrant for Israel’s leader; despite the charges of using starvation as a weapon of war; despite women and children making up nearly 70% of the dead Palestinians in Gaza, according to a United Nations report; despite the fact that more women and children have been killed in Gaza by Israeli military than any other recent conflict in a single year, according to Oxfam; and despite a U.N. agency's report that 10 Palestinian children lose one or both of their legs in Gaza every day — The Financial Times first reported on Nov. 27 that the Biden administration has provisionally approved a new $680 million weapons sale to Israel.
Allison Detzel contributed.