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Strategic Papers 06 October, 2024

Ecocide as Genocide: A Human Security Approach to “Utter Annihilation” in Gaza

Laurent A Lambert

Associate Professor, Doha Institute for Graduate Studies, Head of Unit, Humanitarian and Refugee Studies Unit, Center for Conflict and Humanitarian Studies (CHS).

Introduction

As the death toll mounts in the Gaza Strip, rigorous analysis of Israel’s genocidal war in Gaza, using additional tools to the classic methods of conflict analysis, grows more urgent by the day. As of mid-May 2024, over 15,500 children had been confirmed killed,[1] and by June 2024 the total death toll was already likely to have reached or surpassed 186,000 direct and indirect deaths.[2]

acrobat Icon Most mainstream English and German language media has tended to portray, overall, the current situation in Gaza as simply an asymmetric war, with a professional army fighting a terror group. This war is generally reported to have, expectedly yet unwillingly, generated a large and growing number of victims – as though there was an inescapable but indispensable mechanism of asymmetric fighting that inevitably produced such large numbers of victims.[3] In contrast, Arabic language media and much of the global social media fora have been more critical of Israel’s behaviour (and of unconditional US support),[4] documenting the gap between the Israeli army’s proclaimed care for civilians and the growing number of war crimes it has been committing since October 2023.[5] This more critical media stance against Israeli practices has been both building upon and supporting a rapidly growing body of legal studies that have documented numerous Israeli war crimes and crimes against humanity since 7 October, and demonstrated that these acts are driven by the special intent of genocide.[6]

In this paper, I will refer to the crime of genocide as it was defined in the Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide’s Article II.

[G]enocide means any of the following acts committed with intent to destroy, in whole or in part, a national, ethnical, racial or religious group, as such: 

(a) Killing members of the group; 

(b) Causing serious bodily or mental harm to members of the group;

(c) Deliberately inflicting on the group conditions of life calculated to bring about its physical destruction in whole or in part;

(d) Imposing measures intended to prevent births within the group;

(e) Forcibly transferring children of the group to another group.[7]

This ongoing war in Gaza is marked by a multitude of distinctive features: it is one of history’s heaviest conventional bombing campaigns;[8] it has been livestreamed by the bombarded civilian population itself for eleven months at the time of writing, it is the first post-World War 2 genocidal war with active support from the so-called “international community”,[9] and the first war to draw such a massive Public interest in the International Court of Justice’s (ICJ) functioning and proceedings.[10]

This work proceeds from the academic assumption and now documented fact that the civilian victims of this war are not an un-avoidable collateral damage of war. As articulated by Abdelwahab El-Affendi, this war does not seem “coincidentally genocidal”.[11] There has been indeed several hundred dehumanizing statements made by Israeli decisionmakers, Knesset members and military officers on the one hand. The statistical outcomes of the conflict in just a few months of hostilities further indicate an intention to cause mass casualties and long-term trauma among the population of Gaza.

The over 90,000 victims (dead, missing, and wounded) and two million displaced, are not “collateral damage.” A state military cannot destroy over 350,000 homes with ineffectual warning, assault and invade hospitals and schools crammed with refugees, without intending to maximize civilian casualties. Even if overlooking the official and semi-official rhetoric that is strongly suggestive of a genocidal intent, this is beyond the pale.[12]

Israeli army spokespersons have generally blamed Hamas for using civilians as human shields and maintained that the Israeli forces have always tried their utmost to save civilian lives.[13] However, several Israeli media outlets have published damning testimonies from Israeli intelligence and army officers, who have ascertained that the vast number of civilian casualties across the Gaza Strip is no coincidence. For instance, in an article from +972 Magazine, one of these sources explained:

“Nothing happens by accident […] When a 3-year-old girl is killed in a home in Gaza, it’s because someone in the army decided it wasn’t a big deal for her to be killed – that it was a price worth paying in order to hit [another] target. We are not Hamas. These are not random rockets. Everything is intentional. We know exactly how much collateral damage there is in every home.”[14]

Parallel to these press revelations, more and more specialists and scholars of genocide studies have openly recognized the situation in Gaza as genocide, due to massive air bombardments of Gaza the blocking of vital aid by the army on the one hand, and the multiplication particularly dehumanizing statements concerning the population of Gaza.[15] This is why as early as 15 October 2023, after a week of air bombardments, more than 800 scholars and practitioners of conflict studies, international law, and genocide studies signed and published a public statement warning of the “possibility of the crime of genocide being perpetrated by Israeli forces against Palestinians in the Gaza Strip.” The following text explains particularly its rationale in the following manner:

Language used by Israeli political and military figures appears to reproduce rhetoric and tropes associated with genocide and incitement to genocide. Dehumanizing descriptions of Palestinians have been prevalent. Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant declared on 9 October that “we are fighting human animals and we act accordingly.” He subsequently announced that Israel was moving to “a full-scale response” and that he had “removed every restriction” on Israeli forces, as well as stating: “Gaza won’t return to what it was before. We will eliminate everything.” On 10 October, the head of the Israeli army’s Coordinator of Government Activities in the Territories (COGAT), Maj. Gen. Ghassan Alian, addressed a message directly to Gaza residents: “Human animals must be treated as such. There will be no electricity and no water, there will only be destruction. You wanted hell, you will get hell.” The same day, Israeli army spokesperson Daniel Hagari acknowledged the wanton and intentionally destructive nature of Israel’s bombing campaign in Gaza: “The emphasis is on damage and not on accuracy.”[16]

Worth mentioning, signatories included prominent Holocaust and genocide studies scholars, including Jewish and/or Israeli scholars of genocide and holocaust studies such as Omer Bartov, Amos Goldberg and Raz Segal. The latter would go further and publish his explanation as to why he now considers Israel was committing “a textbook case of genocide” in the Gaza Strip in Jewish Currents magazine a few days later.[17] He highlighted the above-mentioned special intent to commit genocide and dehumanizing rhetoric, explaining that dropping a large numbers of powerful bombs on one of the most densely populated areas in the world (5,000 inhabitants per Km2) constitute genocidal killing. That is in addition to causing serious bodily and mental harm in addition to creating conditions designed to bring about physical destruction of the targeted group by cutting off water, food, energy supplies, bombing hospitals and ordering the fast eviction of hospitals. He considers these elements as respectively the first, second, and third acts of genocide of Article II.

Other genocide analysts have highlighted other elements that have convinced them of the genocidal nature of that war on Gaza. For instance, Human Rights Watch co-founder, Holocaust survivor and genocide scholar Aryeh Neier explained that he eventually became convinced that “Israel is engaged in genocide against Palestinians in Gaza” because of a specific group of policies:

Destroying the farms, destroying the greenhouses, killing a large number of aid workers who were involved in distribution of food, challenging the ability of the UN agency that has been principally involved in distributing food to continue that activity and persuading the United States and other governments to cut off funds from that agency, all those things have had a cumulative impact on the availability of food, and water, and electricity, and medical supplies in Gaza.[18]

It is important to highlight here that the crime of genocide is not limited to mass killings and atrocious harm. The tribunal in the judgement of Radovan Karadžić in the International Criminal Tribunal for Yugoslavia, determined the presence of genocidal intent from Karadžić’s claims and actions. To do so, they referred to conversations he had and claims he had made. Although there are many examples, one of his statements is particularly telling: 

It has been decided that one third of Muslims would be killed, one third would be converted to the Orthodox religion and a third will leave on their own.[19]

The Tribunal’s use of the above in inferring genocidal intent suggests that genocide does not require the intent of total extermination of a group, and can instead be part of a structured plan, with mass killing only playing a part in a broader strategy of harm. Cultural annihilation can also contribute to a genocidal process. Raphael Lemkin, who developed the notion of genocide, observed that it is “a composite of different acts of persecution or destruction”, ranging from physical elimination to the “forced disintegration” of a people’s social fabric, its culture, language, national sentiments and/or religion. Genocide is a process, and sometimes a very comprehensive one, rather than a single act. For instance, continuously replacing the vernacular culture and traditional schooling of Uyghur and Tibetan minorities in Western China by enforcing an (ethnic majority Han) Mandarin Chinese language and curriculum at schools and at home while restricting access to religious sites, and destroying some, is part of a long-term strategy of cultural eradication. Though these actions may themselves not be individually genocidal, they can be seen as part of a broader genocidal plan to destroy a group at its core: its identity. This is supported within a legal framework as in the Zdravko Tolimir judgement,[20] the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia noted that attacks on cultural heritage may “be considered evidence of an intent to physically destroy the group”, an idea later reaffirmed in the trial of Radovan Karadžić.[21]

Of particular importance for the international recognition of the crime of genocide being committed in Gaza, on 29 December 2023, the Republic of South Africa officially applied to the International Court of Justice (ICJ), accusing the State of Israel of violating the Genocide Convention in Gaza.[22] Less than a month later, a remarkably short period for international justice institutions, the Court ruled, on 26 January 2023, that several of South Africa’s claims that Israel is gravely violating the genocide convention are plausible and that the risk of irreparable harm in Gaza requested provisional measures (i.e. restrictive measures) to be issued against the Israeli government. Additionally, on 20 May 2024, the Prosecutor of the International Criminal Court (ICC) officially announced his application for arrest warrants against Hamas leaders as well as Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Defence Minister Yoav Gallant for war crimes and crimes against humanity in the Palestinian territory of Gaza.

Consequently, this paper does not focus on the question of whether there is a genocide ongoing in Gaza, as there is already abundant academic literature, legal documents and expert opinions confirming the reality of the genocide. Nor does it take a legal approach to analyse the ongoing war, as this has already been done remarkably well by South Africa in the above-mentioned case against the State of Israel and by others, including the Special Rapporteur for Palestine,[23] the Lemkin Institute or,[24] for Netanyahu’ and Gallant’s respective war crimes and crimes against humanity, by the Prosecutor of the International Criminal Court.[25]

acrobat IconInstead, this paper looks at the how question and, more specifically, investigates how Gaza’s ecosystems and environment (broadly defined as all what surrounds and sustains the life of a human group) are being targeted and weaponized by the Israeli army. To do so, I will use the concept of human security to better understand how the environment and the crime of ecocide can be and have been instrumental in the ongoing Israeli crime of genocide in Gaza, as defined in the Genocide Convention.


[1] Roth Richard & Jonny Hallam, “UN adds Israel to Global list of Offenders that Harm Children,” CNN, 7/6/2024, accessed on 15/9/2024, at: https://tinyurl.com/msyky52k

[2] Rasha Khatib, Martin McKee & Salim Yusuf, “Counting the dead in Gaza: difficult but essential,” The Lancet, vol. 404, no. 10449 (2024), pp. 237-238.

[3] Barry R. Posen, “The Devastation of Gaza Was Inevitable,” Foreign Policy, 28/2/2024, accessed on 15/9/2024, at: https://tinyurl.com/bdjsz553

[4] Michael Robbins et al., “How the Israel-Hamas War in Gaza Is Changing Arab Views: Support Is Falling for America and the Two-State Solution—but Rising for Iran and Violent Resistance,” Foreign Affairs, 15/5/2024, accessed on 15/9/2024, at: https://tinyurl.com/5dasfrfm; Basim Tweissi, “How Israel Lost the 2023 Gaza Propaganda War,” Al-Muntaqa, vol. 7, no. 15 (2024), pp. 127-141.

[5] Tweissi.

[6] “Statement on Why We Call the Israeli Attack on Gaza Genocide,” Lemkin Institute, 29/12/2023, accessed on 15/9/2024, at: https://tinyurl.com/539d9d6z; Paul Marcos, “Legal Measures Available to Bring Israel to Trial Following the Gaza War of 2023,” Policy Paper, Institute of Palestinian Studies (2023), accessed on 15/9/2024, at: https://tinyurl.com/3kftrre4; “Genocide in Gaza: Analysis of International Law and its Application to Israel’s Military Actions since October 7, 2023,” University Network for Human Rights, 15/5/2024, accessed on 15/9/2024, at: https://tinyurl.com/4araxu3m

[7] “Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide,” United Nations (9 December 1948), accessed on 15/9/2024, at: https://tinyurl.com/2d7nsfud

[8] Jahn P. Rathbone, “Military briefing: the Israeli bombs raining on Gaza,” Financial Times, 6/12/2023, accessed on 15/9/2024, at: https://tinyurl.com/32jthzx6

[9] Abdelwahab El-Affendi, “The futility of genocide studies after Gaza,” Journal of Genocide Research (2024), pp. 1-7.

[10] Tor Krever et al., “On international law and Gaza: critical reflections,” London Review of International Law (2024).

[11] El-Affendi.

[12] Ibid.

[13] Tweissi.

[14] Ben Reiff, “‘A mass assassination factory’: Inside Israel’s calculated bombing of Gaza,” +972 Magazine, 25/4/2024, accessed on 15/9/2024, at: https://tinyurl.com/yeyt7pm9

[15] For instance, Yoav Kisch, then Israeli Minister of Education, declared shortly after the October 7, 2023 attacks, that “[t]hose [Gazans] are animals, they have no right to exist. I am not debating the way it will happen, but they need to be exterminated.” Yoav Gallant, Israeli Defense Minister, declared that he had “ordered a complete siege on the Gaza Strip. There will be no electricity, no food, no fuel, everything is closed. (…) We are dealing with human animals and we need to act accordingly.” Isaac Herzog, the Israeli President, on October 12, declared that “[t]here are no innocent civilians in Gaza”. Some interpreted the Minister of Defense's dehumanization statement and Netanyahu's reference to biblical massacres (the infamous "sons of Amalek" discourse on October 28, 2023) as possibly only targeting Hamas and other armed groups. However, the regular targeting of civilians by the army and repeated statements against the population by these and other high-level policymakers contradict this explanation. A selection of such genocidal statements by Israeli policymakers and Israeli army officers can be found in the annex.

[16] “Public Statement: Scholars Warn of Potential Genocide in Gaza,” 15/9/2023, accessed on 15/9/2024, at: https://tinyurl.com/ybwwu45v

[17] Raz Segal, “A Textbook Case of Genocide,” Jewish Currents, 13/10/2023, accessed on 15/9/2024, at: https://tinyurl.com/hpb4dnxh

[18] “On GPS: The charges against Israel.” CNN, 26/4/2024, accessed on 13/9/2024, at: https://tinyurl.com/29vrzc5a

[19] “Prosecutor v. Radovan Karadžić,” Case No. IT-95-5/18-T, Judgment, International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (2016).

[20] “Prosecutor v. Zdravko Tolimir,” Case No. IT-05-88/2-T, Judgment, [Paragraph 746], International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (2012).

[21] Ibid., p. 553.

[22] “Application of the Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide in the Gaza Strip (South Africa v Israel)”, International Court of Justice, accessed on 15/9/2024, at: https://tinyurl.com/5n7jktp8

[23] “Anatomy of a Genocide: Report of the Special Rapporteur on the Situation of Human Rights in the Palestinian Territories Occupied Since 1967, Francesca Albanese,” Human Rights Council, 25/3/2024, accessed on 15/9/2024, at: https://tinyurl.com/yv5xtxy7

[24] “Statement on Why We Call the Israeli Attack on Gaza Genocide.”

[25] “Statement of ICC Prosecutor Karim A.A. Khan KC: Applications for arrest warrants in the situation in the State of Palestine,” International Criminal Court, 20/5/2024, accessed on 15/9/2024, at: https://tinyurl.com/3m8ttn6b