Since last October, the evidence has mounted that Israel is executing a genocide in Gaza. Genocide has a precise meaning in international law: the intentional destruction of a people, “in whole or in part”. The legacy of the Holocaust makes us think of “genocide” as the ultimate term to describe an atrocity of this kind. Yet there are limits to using this legal term alone to explain and express the immorality of what is going on in Gaza. To me, no legal concept or criminal offence can fully fathom the horrors of Gaza. It is more than genocide – it’s gleeful killing without restraint.
I am referring here, above all, to the celebratory manner in which Israeli soldiers record their destructiveness in Gaza on their smartphones, a practice so pervasive as to have caught the attention of even mainstream outlets usually reluctant to scrutinise Israel intensely, such as the Washington Post (of course, pervasive doesn’t mean ubiquitous – some Israeli soldiers hesitated over rather than revelled in killing). It is one thing to kill children in front of their families, destroy and desecrate holy places, pillage even the means of survival like food and clothing. But then to boast and joke about it? …….more
