The language of genocide: How Israel dehumanises Palestinians
When the existence of an entire people is denied, when their humanity is denied again and again and again, when they are simultaneously cast as non-existent and terrorist — we see what is happening in Gaza.
DAWN
Published November 7, 2023
When the Soviets liberated the Majdanek concentration camp from the Nazis in the summer of 1944, it was the first real view the world had of the horrors of the Holocaust. And the world reacted with disbelief. “Maybe … we should wait for further corroboration,” wrote the New York Herald. “This … sounds inconceivable.”
Today, we see an endless stream of Israel’s war crimes in Gaza. We see the brutalised bodies of men, women and children, and we see the broken souls left mourning them. We see schools, hospitals, refugee camps, mosques and churches being bombarded by Israeli airstrikes without discrimination. We see a land under siege, with no food or water, no medicine or fuel let in. We see what can be described as a genocide, or at the very least an ethnic cleansing, of the people of Gaza. And once again it seems inconceivable.
It is inconceivable — the idea that anyone would deliberately kill other humans en masse in such a way. And this is often the question we are left asking: how is it humanly possible to treat thousands of other humans — even infants — in such a manner?
The immediate instinct might be to think the perpetrators were simply ‘evil’ or ‘madmen’. Yet we also find ordinary people, people like you and I, taking part in the violence, urging it on, reveling in it. This was the case in Nazi Germany. This was the case in Rwanda. This is the case in Palestine. How can they do it?
It’s easy enough. You just have to know the right words. The ones that will allow both observers and perpetrators to think: This is fine. This is acceptable. This is what the victims deserve.
Today, we see an endless stream of Israel’s war crimes in Gaza. We see the brutalised bodies of men, women and children, and we see the broken souls left mourning them. We see schools, hospitals, refugee camps, mosques and churches being bombarded by Israeli airstrikes without discrimination. We see a land under siege, with no food or water, no medicine or fuel let in. We see what can be described as a genocide, or at the very least an ethnic cleansing, of the people of Gaza. And once again it seems inconceivable.
It is inconceivable — the idea that anyone would deliberately kill other humans en masse in such a way. And this is often the question we are left asking: how is it humanly possible to treat thousands of other humans — even infants — in such a manner?
The immediate instinct might be to think the perpetrators were simply ‘evil’ or ‘madmen’. Yet we also find ordinary people, people like you and I, taking part in the violence, urging it on, reveling in it. This was the case in Nazi Germany. This was the case in Rwanda. This is the case in Palestine. How can they do it?
It’s easy enough. You just have to know the right words. The ones that will allow both observers and perpetrators to think: This is fine. This is acceptable. This is what the victims deserve.
Dehumanising the other
The first step in normalising death and destruction on such a massive scale lies in turning society against the victims — whip up the hatred that drives the juggernaut of violence forward.
How do you do that? The answer is dehumanisation.
The victims, as a group, are turned into a symbol of fear and loathing. With the help of propaganda, leaders steer the narrative to reduce them to subhuman creatures — vermin and savages and monsters who will only destroy society if allowed to remain. They’re not really people, not in the sense that others are. They are less than human, they are dangerous to humans and so, enslaving them, torturing them, even killing them is justifiable.
Such stereotyping served as the foundation for colonial violence, with Orientalist perspectives of the colonised peoples as being ‘less than’ the European overlords too.
The ‘merciless Indian savages’ of America, the slavish Africans, the barbarian Arabs and Indians — the idea of ‘civilising the natives’ in these foreign lands served to justify massacres upon massacres, slavery and endless misery. The same stereotypes of the uncivilised Third World now serve to justify Western interventions here, saving ‘helpless natives’ from ‘vicious terrorists’ who must be destroyed.
Activist Mona Eltahawy sprays paint on a pro-Israel ad in New York, 2012.
Photo courtesy Mona Eltahawy via X [formerly Twitter]
The Nazi Third Reich, too, used tactics of dehumanisation as it came up with the label of Untermenschen (subhuman) for the ‘inferior’ non-Aryan races — the Jews, the Roma, the Slavs. The European Jewish community was, of course, at the centre of their hatred, supported by the pre-existing anti-Semitism in the continent.
Considered immoral and corrupt, constantly scheming to take over the world, the Nazis denigrated them as vermin and racially inferior beings, with master propagandist Joseph Goebbels turning to caricatures, books and film to render German society amenable to their genocide.
The Eternal Jew, a ‘documentary’ produced at Goebbels’ insistence, for example, emphasised the otherness of the European Jew, with one scene comparing Jews to rats that spread disease and devour resources across the continent.
The Nazi Third Reich, too, used tactics of dehumanisation as it came up with the label of Untermenschen (subhuman) for the ‘inferior’ non-Aryan races — the Jews, the Roma, the Slavs. The European Jewish community was, of course, at the centre of their hatred, supported by the pre-existing anti-Semitism in the continent.
Considered immoral and corrupt, constantly scheming to take over the world, the Nazis denigrated them as vermin and racially inferior beings, with master propagandist Joseph Goebbels turning to caricatures, books and film to render German society amenable to their genocide.
The Eternal Jew, a ‘documentary’ produced at Goebbels’ insistence, for example, emphasised the otherness of the European Jew, with one scene comparing Jews to rats that spread disease and devour resources across the continent.
Film poster for ‘The Eternal Jew’
A page from the anti-Semitic German children’s book, “Der Giftpilz” (The Poisonous Mushroom). The text reads, “The Jewish nose is crooked at its tip. It looks like the number six…”
The comparison of victims to vermin is a common one for the perpetrators of genocide. The Nazis compared Jews to rats and serpents, with numerous cartoons showing these animals with exaggerated ‘Jewish’ features.
In Rwanda, the notorious Radio Télévision Libre des Mille Collines, which played a vital role in inciting racial hatred against Tutsis during the genocide in 1994, frequently exhorted Hutus to ‘kill the cockroaches’. The idea behind comparisons to vermin is clear — when you have such an infestation plaguing society, what is one to do but exterminate them?
The comparison of victims to vermin is a common one for the perpetrators of genocide. The Nazis compared Jews to rats and serpents, with numerous cartoons showing these animals with exaggerated ‘Jewish’ features.
In Rwanda, the notorious Radio Télévision Libre des Mille Collines, which played a vital role in inciting racial hatred against Tutsis during the genocide in 1994, frequently exhorted Hutus to ‘kill the cockroaches’. The idea behind comparisons to vermin is clear — when you have such an infestation plaguing society, what is one to do but exterminate them?
Cartoon depicting Jews as rats being swept out of Germany and denied entrance to democratic European countries.
— Photo via thenewhumanitarian.org
Anti-Semitic propaganda poster from Nazi-occupied Denmark, stating: ‘The rat – exterminate it’. — Photo via thenewhumanitarian.org
The hate is intrinsically tied to fear. The Nazis stoked fears of the ‘insidious’ nature of Jews taking over society. The leaders of the Rwandan genocide and the media convinced thousands of Hutu that the Tutsi were coming to take over the country — and to kill them; it was this fear that was one of the main factors mobilising the genocidal attacks on the Tutsi.
In such a scenario, when your way of life — your very life, even — is at risk from the ‘others’, moral exclusion isn’t difficult. The same morals and rules don’t apply to the threatening group, and it makes sense to get rid of it.
There’s no shortage in history of marginalised groups being dehumanised as a prelude to the justification of injustices towards them. Israel’s history, too, shows numerous examples of the dehumanising caricaturisation of Palestinians and Arabs.
Fear and loathing in Israel
Today, Telegram channels of Israelis cheering on the destruction in Gaza appear to refer to Palestinians as ‘cockroaches’, ‘microbes’ and ‘pigs’. But they are only following the lead of those in power.
The hate is intrinsically tied to fear. The Nazis stoked fears of the ‘insidious’ nature of Jews taking over society. The leaders of the Rwandan genocide and the media convinced thousands of Hutu that the Tutsi were coming to take over the country — and to kill them; it was this fear that was one of the main factors mobilising the genocidal attacks on the Tutsi.
In such a scenario, when your way of life — your very life, even — is at risk from the ‘others’, moral exclusion isn’t difficult. The same morals and rules don’t apply to the threatening group, and it makes sense to get rid of it.
There’s no shortage in history of marginalised groups being dehumanised as a prelude to the justification of injustices towards them. Israel’s history, too, shows numerous examples of the dehumanising caricaturisation of Palestinians and Arabs.
Fear and loathing in Israel
Today, Telegram channels of Israelis cheering on the destruction in Gaza appear to refer to Palestinians as ‘cockroaches’, ‘microbes’ and ‘pigs’. But they are only following the lead of those in power.
Announcing a ‘complete siege’ of Gaza two days after Hamas’ attack on Israel, the latter’s defence minister, Yoav Gallant, was straightforward about his view of Palestinians. “There will be no electricity, no food, no water, no fuel, everything will be closed. We are fighting against human animals and will act accordingly.”
Even this is a throwback to earlier comparisons. In a speech to the Knesset in 1983, then IDF chief of staff Raphael Eitan declared: “When we have settled the land, all the Arabs will be able to do about it will be to scurry around like drugged cockroaches in a bottle.”
When stereotypes of hate, rooted in fear, are taught to society, dehumanisation is no surprise. It is no surprise when right-wing Israelis at the annual Jerusalem flag march shout: “A good Arab is a dead Arab.”
It is no surprise when children sing:
“All the world hates the Arabs,
And the main thing is to kill them one by one!
With these feet I stepped on my enemy,
With these teeth I bit his skin,
With these lips I sucked his blood,
And I still haven’t had enough revenge.“
It is no surprise when, in the ongoing massacres of Gazan citizens, the deaths of thousands of Palestinians were turned into a mocking meme by Israeli TikTokers, complete with the exaggerated features of the ‘stereotypical Arab.’ Nor is it a surprise when Palestinians in the West Bank are rounded up and humiliated by Israeli soldiers and settlers — and when that too is turned into a grotesque meme.
When racist sentiment becomes so deeply embedded in society, it is fairly easy to convince the average citizen that the ‘other’ must be removed. The Hamas attack on October 7, vicious as it was, allowed hawks in the Israeli government — including Prime Minister Netanyahu himself — to justify the ongoing destruction of Gaza.
In this conflict, it becomes easy to see Gazans as one of two things: “simply details”, as Israeli politician Benny Gantz said dismissively, or complicit with Hamas themselves.
Portraying the conflict as a biblical one, Netanyahu has called Hamas the ‘children of darkness’ — as compared to Israel, the ‘children of light’ — multiple times, insisting that “the good will defeat the extreme evil that threatens us and the entire world.”
Once again, we see the enemy as an inhuman threat — and it is an enemy that is equated with the Palestinian people as a whole.
“It’s an entire nation out there that is responsible [for the Hamas attack]. This rhetoric about civilians not aware, not involved, it’s absolutely not true. They could’ve risen up, they could have fought against that evil regime,” said Israel’s president, Isaac Herzog, in a speech rationalising his government’s relentless bombing and siege of the Gaza strip.
This isn’t the first time Israeli politicians have called for all Palestinians to be considered the enemy. In a deleted Facebook post in 2014, then-lawmaker Ayelet Shaked wrote: “What’s so horrifying about understanding that the entire Palestinian people is the enemy?”, arguing that dozens of civilians stand behind every terrorist, making them fair game too.
When an entire people is your foe, it makes perfect sense to target them all in any retaliatory actions.
It makes sense when members of the Knesset say “Gaza should be erased”, or when they call for “a Nakba that will overshadow the Nakba of 1948!”
It makes sense when an Israeli minister declares that dropping a nuclear bomb on the “monsters in Gaza” is an option; that anyone waving the Palestinian flag “shouldn’t continue living on the face of the earth”.
It makes sense when Netanyahu tells his people to “remember what Amalek has done to you” — a biblical reference to the rivals of ancient Israel, about whom the Israelites were commanded to “go, attack the Amalekites and totally destroy all that belongs to them. Do not spare them; put to death men and women, children and infants, cattle and sheep, camels and donkeys.”
There is, after all, a reason why dehumanisation is considered a preparatory stage for genocide. But it is still not enough to finish off the job. Ideally, the victims must be dehumanised further — enough to allow your troops to engage in mass violence against even civilians — even children, even infants.
Euphemisms of death
In 1942, radio orders requested permission for a truck to be sent to Dessau, Germany, to “fetch material for special treatment”. An innocuous enough request — except that it came from the notorious Nazi death camp of Auschwitz. The ‘material’ in question? Detainees for the concentration camp. The ‘special treatment’ they were to receive? Extermination in the gas chambers.
The Nazis were experts at such euphemisms — a spade was never a spade, murder was never murder. Everything was clinical, sanitised. After all, they were the ones who came up with the term Endlösung der Judenfrage — the ‘Final Solution to the Jewish Question’. We know this better as the Holocaust, the mass slaughter of six million Europeans Jews.
Why? To make it easier to kill.
To make it easier for the bureaucrats at their desks to dissociate from what they were signing off on. To make it easier for society to digest what was happening. Why are the Jews, the Roma getting on the trains? Why, they’re only being ‘resettled to the East’. And so, everyone else can go on with their lives.
We talk about the Nazi killing machine and its bureaucratic impassivity as if they were anomalies, but truth be told, we do the same when it comes to warfare and conflict nowadays too. ‘Collateral damage’ to smooth over the loss of civilian life; ‘interventions’ to make invasions more acceptable; ‘enhanced interrogation techniques’ to make torture more palatable.
And in Gaza today — ‘human shields’ to justify the bombarding of an entire territory. Not only does it reduce every single person in Gaza to pawns, it blames them for their own death — for why didn’t they leave? Why did they allow themselves to be put in this position, to be used by Hamas?
The Gazan workers detained in Israel also revealed another chilling parallel of dehumanisation upon their release on Friday, with the numbered bracelets on their ankles bringing to mind the tattoos used to identify prisoners at Auschwitz concentration camps.
Even this is a throwback to earlier comparisons. In a speech to the Knesset in 1983, then IDF chief of staff Raphael Eitan declared: “When we have settled the land, all the Arabs will be able to do about it will be to scurry around like drugged cockroaches in a bottle.”
When stereotypes of hate, rooted in fear, are taught to society, dehumanisation is no surprise. It is no surprise when right-wing Israelis at the annual Jerusalem flag march shout: “A good Arab is a dead Arab.”
It is no surprise when children sing:
“All the world hates the Arabs,
And the main thing is to kill them one by one!
With these feet I stepped on my enemy,
With these teeth I bit his skin,
With these lips I sucked his blood,
And I still haven’t had enough revenge.“
It is no surprise when, in the ongoing massacres of Gazan citizens, the deaths of thousands of Palestinians were turned into a mocking meme by Israeli TikTokers, complete with the exaggerated features of the ‘stereotypical Arab.’ Nor is it a surprise when Palestinians in the West Bank are rounded up and humiliated by Israeli soldiers and settlers — and when that too is turned into a grotesque meme.
When racist sentiment becomes so deeply embedded in society, it is fairly easy to convince the average citizen that the ‘other’ must be removed. The Hamas attack on October 7, vicious as it was, allowed hawks in the Israeli government — including Prime Minister Netanyahu himself — to justify the ongoing destruction of Gaza.
In this conflict, it becomes easy to see Gazans as one of two things: “simply details”, as Israeli politician Benny Gantz said dismissively, or complicit with Hamas themselves.
Portraying the conflict as a biblical one, Netanyahu has called Hamas the ‘children of darkness’ — as compared to Israel, the ‘children of light’ — multiple times, insisting that “the good will defeat the extreme evil that threatens us and the entire world.”
Once again, we see the enemy as an inhuman threat — and it is an enemy that is equated with the Palestinian people as a whole.
“It’s an entire nation out there that is responsible [for the Hamas attack]. This rhetoric about civilians not aware, not involved, it’s absolutely not true. They could’ve risen up, they could have fought against that evil regime,” said Israel’s president, Isaac Herzog, in a speech rationalising his government’s relentless bombing and siege of the Gaza strip.
This isn’t the first time Israeli politicians have called for all Palestinians to be considered the enemy. In a deleted Facebook post in 2014, then-lawmaker Ayelet Shaked wrote: “What’s so horrifying about understanding that the entire Palestinian people is the enemy?”, arguing that dozens of civilians stand behind every terrorist, making them fair game too.
When an entire people is your foe, it makes perfect sense to target them all in any retaliatory actions.
It makes sense when members of the Knesset say “Gaza should be erased”, or when they call for “a Nakba that will overshadow the Nakba of 1948!”
It makes sense when an Israeli minister declares that dropping a nuclear bomb on the “monsters in Gaza” is an option; that anyone waving the Palestinian flag “shouldn’t continue living on the face of the earth”.
It makes sense when Netanyahu tells his people to “remember what Amalek has done to you” — a biblical reference to the rivals of ancient Israel, about whom the Israelites were commanded to “go, attack the Amalekites and totally destroy all that belongs to them. Do not spare them; put to death men and women, children and infants, cattle and sheep, camels and donkeys.”
There is, after all, a reason why dehumanisation is considered a preparatory stage for genocide. But it is still not enough to finish off the job. Ideally, the victims must be dehumanised further — enough to allow your troops to engage in mass violence against even civilians — even children, even infants.
Euphemisms of death
In 1942, radio orders requested permission for a truck to be sent to Dessau, Germany, to “fetch material for special treatment”. An innocuous enough request — except that it came from the notorious Nazi death camp of Auschwitz. The ‘material’ in question? Detainees for the concentration camp. The ‘special treatment’ they were to receive? Extermination in the gas chambers.
The Nazis were experts at such euphemisms — a spade was never a spade, murder was never murder. Everything was clinical, sanitised. After all, they were the ones who came up with the term Endlösung der Judenfrage — the ‘Final Solution to the Jewish Question’. We know this better as the Holocaust, the mass slaughter of six million Europeans Jews.
Why? To make it easier to kill.
To make it easier for the bureaucrats at their desks to dissociate from what they were signing off on. To make it easier for society to digest what was happening. Why are the Jews, the Roma getting on the trains? Why, they’re only being ‘resettled to the East’. And so, everyone else can go on with their lives.
We talk about the Nazi killing machine and its bureaucratic impassivity as if they were anomalies, but truth be told, we do the same when it comes to warfare and conflict nowadays too. ‘Collateral damage’ to smooth over the loss of civilian life; ‘interventions’ to make invasions more acceptable; ‘enhanced interrogation techniques’ to make torture more palatable.
And in Gaza today — ‘human shields’ to justify the bombarding of an entire territory. Not only does it reduce every single person in Gaza to pawns, it blames them for their own death — for why didn’t they leave? Why did they allow themselves to be put in this position, to be used by Hamas?
The Gazan workers detained in Israel also revealed another chilling parallel of dehumanisation upon their release on Friday, with the numbered bracelets on their ankles bringing to mind the tattoos used to identify prisoners at Auschwitz concentration camps.
A Gazan worker released from an Israeli prison walks with numbered tags on his ankles. — Photo via AFP
What’s the purpose of labelling and numbering victims in this way? The words we use influence our realities, they frame our narratives and mould our perceptions. If we describe victims in technical, ethically neutral ways and diminish them to nameless, faceless statistics, we can reduce them to inanimate objects.
Humanity, then, loses its distinctiveness — and once they are no longer human, once they have been dehumanised, empathy is no longer needed for them. Their suffering no longer matters. We can squash our ethical and moral impulses and look upon them with indifference. And ultimately, killing them becomes a matter of routine.
Even the method of murder for the vast majority of the Holocaust’s victims was dispassionate and mechanical — gas chambers rather than killing up close. Why? Mass shootings in front of open pits had become too upsetting for the Nazi troops, who kept having nervous breakdowns. They needed a “more humane” way to go about it — more humane for the perpetrators, at least.
The Rwandan genocide was more hands-on, with machetes being a widely used weapon. But the killers would try to get the victims to turn away as they chopped them down. What frustrated them, according to genocide scholar James Edward Waller, was when the victims refused to do so, when they looked at them squarely in the face — when the violence became too intimate.
It’s easier to kill from a distance. It’s easier to commit atrocities from a distance. This holds true for the Nazi gas chambers; it also holds true for aerial bombing and drone strikes. Sure, it makes it safer for the perpetrator too — the pilot is less likely to die than those involved in hand-to-hand combat.
But for pilots and especially for drone operators, the disconnect may be heightened too. Ethics experts have worried about how it may lead to a “Playstation mentality” for death, reducing human targets to mere blips — or ‘bug splats’ — on the screen. When you’re hitting a target, a bug on a screen, instead of another human, it’s easier to disengage from the enormity of taking a life.
What’s the purpose of labelling and numbering victims in this way? The words we use influence our realities, they frame our narratives and mould our perceptions. If we describe victims in technical, ethically neutral ways and diminish them to nameless, faceless statistics, we can reduce them to inanimate objects.
Humanity, then, loses its distinctiveness — and once they are no longer human, once they have been dehumanised, empathy is no longer needed for them. Their suffering no longer matters. We can squash our ethical and moral impulses and look upon them with indifference. And ultimately, killing them becomes a matter of routine.
Even the method of murder for the vast majority of the Holocaust’s victims was dispassionate and mechanical — gas chambers rather than killing up close. Why? Mass shootings in front of open pits had become too upsetting for the Nazi troops, who kept having nervous breakdowns. They needed a “more humane” way to go about it — more humane for the perpetrators, at least.
The Rwandan genocide was more hands-on, with machetes being a widely used weapon. But the killers would try to get the victims to turn away as they chopped them down. What frustrated them, according to genocide scholar James Edward Waller, was when the victims refused to do so, when they looked at them squarely in the face — when the violence became too intimate.
It’s easier to kill from a distance. It’s easier to commit atrocities from a distance. This holds true for the Nazi gas chambers; it also holds true for aerial bombing and drone strikes. Sure, it makes it safer for the perpetrator too — the pilot is less likely to die than those involved in hand-to-hand combat.
But for pilots and especially for drone operators, the disconnect may be heightened too. Ethics experts have worried about how it may lead to a “Playstation mentality” for death, reducing human targets to mere blips — or ‘bug splats’ — on the screen. When you’re hitting a target, a bug on a screen, instead of another human, it’s easier to disengage from the enormity of taking a life.
A land without a people
The slogan is familiar. A land without a people for a people without a land. The project of Israel “from beginning to end … involved acting as if the Palestinian people not only must not exist, but had never existed,” according to French philosopher Gilles Deleuze. And this is precisely what Israelis — such as former prime minister Golda Meir, who famously proclaimed that “there was no such thing as Palestinians” — have done throughout Israel’s history.
When the existence of an entire people is denied, when their humanity is denied again and again and again, when they are simultaneously cast as non-existent and terrorist — we see what is happening in Gaza. As Palestinian-American writer Hala Alyan points out in a New York Times op-ed: “A slaughter isn’t a slaughter if those being slaughtered are at fault, if they’ve been quietly and effectively dehumanised — in the media, through policy — for years. If nobody is a civilian, nobody can be a victim.”
In Western media, we see Palestinians being asked, again and again, whether they condemn Hamas. Why? Because unless they, these terrorists, first disavow violence — violence they are not responsible for in the first place — they are not seen as rational. They are not seen as human.
And so, we also see what we have been seeing on social media every day for the past month, for the past years, for the past decades. Palestinians, forced to put their suffering on display to the entire world — so that maybe, just maybe, the world will rehumanise them.
Maybe, just maybe, it will see them as humans who deserve to live too.
‘They’re coming for us all’: Israel’s assault on Gaza’s education
DAWN
Monitoring Desk
• South Africa recalls diplomats from Tel Aviv
• Tanks moving between ruins; 1.5m people have fled northern Gaza
GAZA STRIP: The death toll in Gaza has exceeded 10,000 after nearly one month of Israeli bombardment, the Hamas-run health ministry said on Monday as the military action against the Palestinian group showed signs of intensifying.
Determined to destroy Hamas whose Oct 7 raid left 1,400 dead in Israel and saw over 240 taken prisoner, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has vowed no let-up despite mounting international calls for a halt to fighting.
Hundreds of overnight strikes pushed the death toll to 10,022, mostly women and children, a spokesman for the health ministry told a press conference.
Two paediatric hospitals and Gaza’s only psychiatric hospital were hit, the ministry said, after the director of another hospital, the Deir Al Balah in central Gaza, reported he had counted 58 dead.
“These are massacres. They destroyed three houses over the heads of their inhabitants,” one resident, Mahmud Meshmesh, said.
“We have already taken 40 bodies out of the rubble,” he said as crowds prayed around corpses wrapped in white shrouds.
Israel’s ground forces have flooded the northern half of the Gaza Strip with tanks and tightened an encirclement of Gaza City, effectively splitting the territory in two, even as hundreds of thousands of civilians remained in the north despite Israeli evacuation orders.
The United States sent its top diplomat Antony Blinken on a whirlwind Middle East tour that wrapped up on Monday in Turkiye, where again his host pressed for a ceasefire, which Washington has declined to endorse.
The Israeli army said on Monday it had pounded Gaza with “significant” strikes on 450 targets, having earlier said it had already hit over 12,000.
It also reported seizing a Hamas ‘command post’ in central Gaza, where tanks were driving between the ruins of buildings.
Israeli troops and Hamas fighters have engaged in fierce house-to-house combat in densely populated northern Gaza, where the Israeli bombardment has sent 1.5 million people fleeing to other parts of the territory.
Shortly before the latest barrage of strikes, internet and telephone lines were cut, the Israeli army said.
Israel has air-dropped leaflets and sent text messages ordering Palestinian civilians in northern Gaza to head south, but a US official said at least 350,000 civilians remained in the worst-hit areas.
The Rafah crossing between the Gaza Strip and Egypt reopened on Monday to allow the evacuation of foreigners and dual nationals, ending a two-day closure prompted by a dispute over the passage of ambulances.
Six ambulances carrying wounded Gazans also arrived in Egypt as the evacuations resumed, a border official said.
In Israeli-annexed east Jerusalem, a female Israeli soldier was “seriously” wounded in a knife attack before “border police forces neutralised the terrorist by shooting”, police said.
Erdogan snubs Blinken
Blinken called for “humanitarian pauses” while rejecting Arab countries’ demands for a ceasefire.
After meeting his Turkish counterpart Hakan Fidan in Ankara, Blinken said Washington was working “very aggressively” to dramatically expand aid reaching trapped civilians in Gaza, but he did not provide details before boarding a flight to Japan.
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan himself was travelling across his country’s remote northeast on Monday, snubbing Blinken.
S. Africa recalls diplomats
South Africa recalled its diplomats from Israel on Monday to assess its relationship with the country.
Naledi Pandor, the foreign minister, made the remarks in Pretoria during a joint press briefing with her Ukrainian counterpart Dmytro Kuleba.
Calling the return of diplomats a “normal practice”, Pandor said the recall was to determine “whether there is any potential for you to be of assistance and whether the continued relationship is actually able to be sustained in all terms”.
Arrival of N-sub
US Central Command, which covers the Middle East, said on X, formerly Twitter, that a nuclear missile submarine had arrived in the region — an unusual announcement seen by some analysts as a message to Iran.
Iranian Foreign Minister Hossein Amirabdollahian told state TV the US had sent a message to Iran in the past three days saying it sought a ceasefire in Gaza, but in practice Iran had seen only US “support of genocide in Gaza”.
Remarks on N-option condemned
Pakistan expressed alarm over an Israeli minister’s statement threatening the use of nuclear force against Palestinians.
In a post on X, the Foreign Office spokesperson said in Islamabad the statement reflects an inclination to ethnic cleansing and genocide.
“It is time for the international community to wake up to the threat posed by the Israeli aggression to regional peace, security and stability,” the spokesperson said.
Saudi Arabia and other Arab countries condemned the Israeli minister’s remarks.
The minister’s comments showed the penetration of “extremism and brutality” among members of the Israeli government, the Saudi statement said.
In Doha, Qatar’s foreign ministry said such threats were an incitement to war crime and a disregard for humanitarian values and international laws.
In Kuwait City, a government spokesperson said such remarks prove that the “Israeli aggression against Palestinian people has reached a chilling stage”.
The spokesperson appealed to the United Nations Security Council to halt Israel’s genocide in Gaza.
The Yemeni foreign ministry said the Israeli statement represents a serious threat and incitement to murder. “It reflects unprecedented levels of hatred and extremism.
Published in Dawn, November 7th, 2023
Monitoring Desk
Published November 7, 2023
Palestinian children run as they flee from Israeli bombardment in Rafah in the southern Gaza Strip on November 6, 2023. — AFP
With ethnic cleansing in full swing, Israel has targeted educational institutes in Gaza as 11 out of 14 universities are completely destroyed.
The Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR), the largest Muslim civil rights and advocacy organisation in the United States, has asserted that the Israeli government, with a far-right orientation, has caused significant damage to Al-Azhar University in Gaza.
This incident is seen as another instance of civilian casualties in a refugee camp and a fatal bombing of a UN facility that shelters refugees. These events serve as additional evidence for the international community to take action to address what CAIR characterises as a “genocidal campaign” against the Palestinian population by Israel.
A freelance photojournalist named Motaz Azaiza, hailing from Gaza, shared images depicting the aftermath of the destruction of Al-Azhar University. In his emotional response, he expressed deep sorrow for the loss of his educational institute.
“They’re coming for us all. They’re destroying our educational institutes that are our assets. I have lived the best days of my life here and now it is all gone in just matter of minutes,” he wrote in an Instagram story.
Ahmed Alnaouq, a Palestinian journalist based in London, shared the videos of an air strike on Al-Azhar University, expressing his sorrow over losing the place he learned everything from.
“Introducing Al-Azhar University in Gaza, where I had my first degree in English Literature,” he wrote on his X, formerly Twitter account with a video where the university went up in the ashes.
In an added tweet, he also shared that the campus Israel bombed was newly built which is now completely destroyed.
“Colonialism and genocide are always accompanied by epistemicide. This is the video and evidence of Israel’s bombing of Al-Azhar University — Gaza. I can only imagine how much knowledge and history was immediately lost,” an X user wrote in the comments.
“All 11 Universities in Gaza have been bombed by Israel. This number surpassed 10 when Israel targeted and bombed Al-Azhar University. In total, 19 higher education orgs have suspended educational processes in Gaza depriving 88,000+ students their right to education,” The Guardian reported.
Plestia, another journalist from Gaza spoke about the barbaric acts of Israel and expressed her grief over losing her educational institute.
“They have bombed hospitals, houses, nurseries, shops and now universities. They are coming for all of us, making sure none of us survives and if we do, we lose everything that is necessary to build a life,” she wrote on Instagram with horrifying images of UN schools in shambles and remains of universities.
Published in Dawn, November 7th, 2023
With ethnic cleansing in full swing, Israel has targeted educational institutes in Gaza as 11 out of 14 universities are completely destroyed.
The Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR), the largest Muslim civil rights and advocacy organisation in the United States, has asserted that the Israeli government, with a far-right orientation, has caused significant damage to Al-Azhar University in Gaza.
This incident is seen as another instance of civilian casualties in a refugee camp and a fatal bombing of a UN facility that shelters refugees. These events serve as additional evidence for the international community to take action to address what CAIR characterises as a “genocidal campaign” against the Palestinian population by Israel.
A freelance photojournalist named Motaz Azaiza, hailing from Gaza, shared images depicting the aftermath of the destruction of Al-Azhar University. In his emotional response, he expressed deep sorrow for the loss of his educational institute.
“They’re coming for us all. They’re destroying our educational institutes that are our assets. I have lived the best days of my life here and now it is all gone in just matter of minutes,” he wrote in an Instagram story.
Ahmed Alnaouq, a Palestinian journalist based in London, shared the videos of an air strike on Al-Azhar University, expressing his sorrow over losing the place he learned everything from.
“Introducing Al-Azhar University in Gaza, where I had my first degree in English Literature,” he wrote on his X, formerly Twitter account with a video where the university went up in the ashes.
In an added tweet, he also shared that the campus Israel bombed was newly built which is now completely destroyed.
“Colonialism and genocide are always accompanied by epistemicide. This is the video and evidence of Israel’s bombing of Al-Azhar University — Gaza. I can only imagine how much knowledge and history was immediately lost,” an X user wrote in the comments.
“All 11 Universities in Gaza have been bombed by Israel. This number surpassed 10 when Israel targeted and bombed Al-Azhar University. In total, 19 higher education orgs have suspended educational processes in Gaza depriving 88,000+ students their right to education,” The Guardian reported.
Plestia, another journalist from Gaza spoke about the barbaric acts of Israel and expressed her grief over losing her educational institute.
“They have bombed hospitals, houses, nurseries, shops and now universities. They are coming for all of us, making sure none of us survives and if we do, we lose everything that is necessary to build a life,” she wrote on Instagram with horrifying images of UN schools in shambles and remains of universities.
Published in Dawn, November 7th, 2023
Israeli brutalities intensify as death toll tops 10,000
DAWN
Published November 7, 2023
A GIRL covers her ears during Israeli air strikes on the al-Maghazi refugee camp, Gaza Strip, on Monday.—AFP
• Israeli minister’s N-remarks condemned as US sends nuclear submarine to region
• Israeli minister’s N-remarks condemned as US sends nuclear submarine to region
• South Africa recalls diplomats from Tel Aviv
• Tanks moving between ruins; 1.5m people have fled northern Gaza
GAZA STRIP: The death toll in Gaza has exceeded 10,000 after nearly one month of Israeli bombardment, the Hamas-run health ministry said on Monday as the military action against the Palestinian group showed signs of intensifying.
Determined to destroy Hamas whose Oct 7 raid left 1,400 dead in Israel and saw over 240 taken prisoner, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has vowed no let-up despite mounting international calls for a halt to fighting.
Hundreds of overnight strikes pushed the death toll to 10,022, mostly women and children, a spokesman for the health ministry told a press conference.
Two paediatric hospitals and Gaza’s only psychiatric hospital were hit, the ministry said, after the director of another hospital, the Deir Al Balah in central Gaza, reported he had counted 58 dead.
“These are massacres. They destroyed three houses over the heads of their inhabitants,” one resident, Mahmud Meshmesh, said.
“We have already taken 40 bodies out of the rubble,” he said as crowds prayed around corpses wrapped in white shrouds.
Israel’s ground forces have flooded the northern half of the Gaza Strip with tanks and tightened an encirclement of Gaza City, effectively splitting the territory in two, even as hundreds of thousands of civilians remained in the north despite Israeli evacuation orders.
The United States sent its top diplomat Antony Blinken on a whirlwind Middle East tour that wrapped up on Monday in Turkiye, where again his host pressed for a ceasefire, which Washington has declined to endorse.
The Israeli army said on Monday it had pounded Gaza with “significant” strikes on 450 targets, having earlier said it had already hit over 12,000.
It also reported seizing a Hamas ‘command post’ in central Gaza, where tanks were driving between the ruins of buildings.
Israeli troops and Hamas fighters have engaged in fierce house-to-house combat in densely populated northern Gaza, where the Israeli bombardment has sent 1.5 million people fleeing to other parts of the territory.
Shortly before the latest barrage of strikes, internet and telephone lines were cut, the Israeli army said.
Israel has air-dropped leaflets and sent text messages ordering Palestinian civilians in northern Gaza to head south, but a US official said at least 350,000 civilians remained in the worst-hit areas.
The Rafah crossing between the Gaza Strip and Egypt reopened on Monday to allow the evacuation of foreigners and dual nationals, ending a two-day closure prompted by a dispute over the passage of ambulances.
Six ambulances carrying wounded Gazans also arrived in Egypt as the evacuations resumed, a border official said.
In Israeli-annexed east Jerusalem, a female Israeli soldier was “seriously” wounded in a knife attack before “border police forces neutralised the terrorist by shooting”, police said.
Erdogan snubs Blinken
Blinken called for “humanitarian pauses” while rejecting Arab countries’ demands for a ceasefire.
After meeting his Turkish counterpart Hakan Fidan in Ankara, Blinken said Washington was working “very aggressively” to dramatically expand aid reaching trapped civilians in Gaza, but he did not provide details before boarding a flight to Japan.
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan himself was travelling across his country’s remote northeast on Monday, snubbing Blinken.
S. Africa recalls diplomats
South Africa recalled its diplomats from Israel on Monday to assess its relationship with the country.
Naledi Pandor, the foreign minister, made the remarks in Pretoria during a joint press briefing with her Ukrainian counterpart Dmytro Kuleba.
Calling the return of diplomats a “normal practice”, Pandor said the recall was to determine “whether there is any potential for you to be of assistance and whether the continued relationship is actually able to be sustained in all terms”.
Arrival of N-sub
US Central Command, which covers the Middle East, said on X, formerly Twitter, that a nuclear missile submarine had arrived in the region — an unusual announcement seen by some analysts as a message to Iran.
Iranian Foreign Minister Hossein Amirabdollahian told state TV the US had sent a message to Iran in the past three days saying it sought a ceasefire in Gaza, but in practice Iran had seen only US “support of genocide in Gaza”.
Remarks on N-option condemned
Pakistan expressed alarm over an Israeli minister’s statement threatening the use of nuclear force against Palestinians.
In a post on X, the Foreign Office spokesperson said in Islamabad the statement reflects an inclination to ethnic cleansing and genocide.
“It is time for the international community to wake up to the threat posed by the Israeli aggression to regional peace, security and stability,” the spokesperson said.
Saudi Arabia and other Arab countries condemned the Israeli minister’s remarks.
The minister’s comments showed the penetration of “extremism and brutality” among members of the Israeli government, the Saudi statement said.
In Doha, Qatar’s foreign ministry said such threats were an incitement to war crime and a disregard for humanitarian values and international laws.
In Kuwait City, a government spokesperson said such remarks prove that the “Israeli aggression against Palestinian people has reached a chilling stage”.
The spokesperson appealed to the United Nations Security Council to halt Israel’s genocide in Gaza.
The Yemeni foreign ministry said the Israeli statement represents a serious threat and incitement to murder. “It reflects unprecedented levels of hatred and extremism.
Published in Dawn, November 7th, 2023
Statement of support from professionals in cultural, artistic & academic fields in the EU, US & Canada for Palestinian rights amidst the ongoing massacre of Palestinians in Gaza
Statement: Writer Noor Naga, singer Yasmine Hamdan & artists Hamed Sino & Ali Cherri are amongst over 350 signatories expressing unconditional support for Palestinian rights in the face of the ongoing massacre endured by Palestinians in Gaza
The death toll from Israel's bombardment of the Gaza Strip reaches 9,227 killed, including over 3,826 children and 32,500 people wounded. [GETTY]
We are Arab or Arabic-speaking professionals in the cultural, artistic, and academic fields in the European Union, the United States, and Canada, who hold dual nationalities or are residents of these countries. We unequivocally express our unconditional support for Palestinian rights in the face of the ongoing massacre endured by Palestinians in Gaza.
In some of these countries, the prevailing climate has reached the degree of silencing and suppressing Arab voices demonstrating solidarity with Palestinians in both the media and in public spaces. It is moving towards prohibiting the raising of the Palestinian flag and wearing keffiyehs, restricting the freedom to express support for Palestinians, and limiting genuine political discourse on the subject of resistance to occupation. This suppression has exacerbated a discourse of hate and racism directed towards individuals of Arab descent in these countries. Regrettably, we are witnessing distressing events targeting Arab residents and attempting to limit their professional opportunities.
''Remaining silent regarding the war crimes committed by the Israeli army is a seal of approval justifying the colossal massacre to which Palestinians are subjected to today.''
In recent history, the governments of some of these countries have not only supported authoritarian regimes in Arab countries, or invaded others, or bolstered military, sectarian, and nepotistic corrupt regimes that impoverish and deprive their citizens of freedom. These Western countries have also turned a blind eye to the Palestinian tragedy and entirely disregarded the rights of Palestinians. Remaining silent regarding the war crimes committed by the Israeli army is a seal of approval justifying the colossal massacre to which Palestinians are subjected to today.
Today, we stand up for our people at home and abroad, and we loudly declare that we will not allow the silencing of Palestinians, Arabs and pro-Palestinians. Therefore, we utilise our positions and privileges to defend our people, and we will continue to do so. We call on the free people of the world everywhere to stand with us against this attack that threatens to dismantle the very foundations of freedoms and values, transforming them into overt systems of tyranny.
Justice for Palestinians, and for the oppressed of the world, now and forever.
NEW ARAB
03 Nov, 2023
03 Nov, 2023
Statement: Writer Noor Naga, singer Yasmine Hamdan & artists Hamed Sino & Ali Cherri are amongst over 350 signatories expressing unconditional support for Palestinian rights in the face of the ongoing massacre endured by Palestinians in Gaza
The death toll from Israel's bombardment of the Gaza Strip reaches 9,227 killed, including over 3,826 children and 32,500 people wounded. [GETTY]
We are Arab or Arabic-speaking professionals in the cultural, artistic, and academic fields in the European Union, the United States, and Canada, who hold dual nationalities or are residents of these countries. We unequivocally express our unconditional support for Palestinian rights in the face of the ongoing massacre endured by Palestinians in Gaza.
In some of these countries, the prevailing climate has reached the degree of silencing and suppressing Arab voices demonstrating solidarity with Palestinians in both the media and in public spaces. It is moving towards prohibiting the raising of the Palestinian flag and wearing keffiyehs, restricting the freedom to express support for Palestinians, and limiting genuine political discourse on the subject of resistance to occupation. This suppression has exacerbated a discourse of hate and racism directed towards individuals of Arab descent in these countries. Regrettably, we are witnessing distressing events targeting Arab residents and attempting to limit their professional opportunities.
''Remaining silent regarding the war crimes committed by the Israeli army is a seal of approval justifying the colossal massacre to which Palestinians are subjected to today.''
In recent history, the governments of some of these countries have not only supported authoritarian regimes in Arab countries, or invaded others, or bolstered military, sectarian, and nepotistic corrupt regimes that impoverish and deprive their citizens of freedom. These Western countries have also turned a blind eye to the Palestinian tragedy and entirely disregarded the rights of Palestinians. Remaining silent regarding the war crimes committed by the Israeli army is a seal of approval justifying the colossal massacre to which Palestinians are subjected to today.
Today, we stand up for our people at home and abroad, and we loudly declare that we will not allow the silencing of Palestinians, Arabs and pro-Palestinians. Therefore, we utilise our positions and privileges to defend our people, and we will continue to do so. We call on the free people of the world everywhere to stand with us against this attack that threatens to dismantle the very foundations of freedoms and values, transforming them into overt systems of tyranny.
Justice for Palestinians, and for the oppressed of the world, now and forever.
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