"The horror of Gaza must be called by its name: genocide," Gideon Levy accuses Israel of

The Gaza massacre

"Genocide, the extermination of a people, it's time to say it. In fact, it's already too late," he wrote in Haaretz. "It began in 1948. Now, however, there is enough evidence to pronounce the full name of the monster lurking in the Strip."

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Yes, the time has truly come. The time to use that distressing word, which reopens wounds from the past, but which captures the meaning and scope of the tragedy unfolding in Gaza. It is spoken and written by one of Israel's greatest journalists, a longtime contributor to Haaretz: Gideon Levy.

Levy writes: “ The time has come. It is no longer possible to procrastinate and avoid responding. We can no longer hide, evade, mumble, placate, or confuse matters. Nor can we cling to legal sophistries about the ‘question of intent’ or wait for the ruling of the International Court of Justice in The Hague, which may come too late. It is already too late. That is why the time has come to call the horror by its name: genocide, the extermination of a people. There is no other way to describe it. Before our horrified eyes, Israel is committing genocide in the Gaza Strip. It did not begin now, but in 1948. Now, however, there is enough evidence to call the monster lurking in the Gaza Strip by its full name. This is a moment of despair, but also of liberation. We must no longer avoid the truth. On Monday, in the basement of a hotel in East Jerusalem, two leading Israeli human rights organizations announced that the die was cast. B'Tselem and Physicians for Human Rights declared that they had concluded that Israel is committing genocide . They did so in front of dozens of journalists from around the world and a shamefully small representation of the Israeli media. B'Tselem titled its report 'Our Genocide' – and it is genocide, and it is ours. The dramatic declaration was greeted in Israel with almost total indifference. But this too demonstrates the gravity of the situation. Genocide is almost always denied by those who commit it.

So it is. But, Levy warns, the moment of truth cannot be diverted. "The meaning is grave ," Levy emphasizes. "Living in a country whose soldiers are committing genocide is an indelible stain, a distorted face staring back at us from the mirror, a personal challenge for every Israeli. This term raises profound questions about the country and our role in this crime. It reminds us of where we come from and poses difficult questions about our future. Now, the easiest thing is the burden of proof. Legal confirmation may come from The Hague, but the moral evidence piles up every day. For months, the few in Israel who see the Gaza Strip as a question of intent have suffered. Does Israel truly intend to commit genocide, or has it perhaps caused these results unintentionally? This question has become superfluous. It is not the number of killings and destruction that removes it from the agenda, but the systematic manner in which they are perpetrated. When 33 out of 35 hospitals are destroyed, the intent is clear and the debate is over. When entire neighborhoods, villages, and cities are systematically obliterated, All doubt about one's intentions vanishes. When you kill dozens of people every day in food lines , the method has been proven beyond all doubt. When you use hunger as a weapon, there is no longer any doubt. There is nothing left to understand: what is happening in Gaza is not the collateral damage of a bad war, but the objective. Mass starvation, destruction, and death are the objective, and from there the road to the conclusion is short: genocide . It is the final solution to the Palestinian question.

Levy's accusation is powerful: " Israel clearly intends to destroy Palestinian society in the Gaza Strip, making it an unlivable place. It intends to carry out ethnic cleansing, whether through genocide or population transfer, possibly both. This does not mean the plot will succeed, but it is moving in the direction of this final solution. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, the father and main executor of this plot, calls it a 'total victory,' and that victory is genocide and population transfer. Netanyahu and his government will not compromise on anything less. Meanwhile, the Jewish opposition parties have no one who truly opposes them."

The next step is steeped in pessimism. The pessimism of reason, which does not, however, mean stepping aside, surrendering, leaving the field to the Netanyahus, the Ben-Gvirs , the Smotrichs , to the fascist government that is annihilating a people and dismantling what remains of what was once the only democracy in the Middle East. Gideon Levy is a fighter, as well as a straight-backed journalist. Surrender is not a word in his everyday vocabulary. “In Israel ,” Levy concludes, “ there is no one left who can stop this march toward genocide, only those who ignore it. As frightening as it may seem, there is a danger that the genocide will not stop in Gaza. They have already created the ideological and operational infrastructure to do so in the West Bank . The Arab citizens of Israel could be next. There is no one who can stop them, and we must do it ourselves.”