https://arab.news/n6xcf
Suppose we accept the fiction that none of us expected Israel to launch a full-scale genocide in Gaza — a premeditated campaign to erase the enclave and exterminate a significant portion of its inhabitants. Let us pretend that almost 80 years of relentless massacres were not a prelude to this moment, and that Israel had never before sought the physical destruction of the Palestinian people as outlined by the 1948 Genocide Convention.
If we go so far as to accept the sterile, ahistoric claim that the Nakba of 1948 was “merely” ethnic cleansing rather than genocide — ignoring the mass graves and the forced erasure of a civilization — we are still left with a terrifying reality. Having witnessed the unmasked extermination that began on Oct. 7, 2023, who can dare to argue that its perpetrators lack the intent to repeat it?
The question itself is an act of charity, as it assumes the genocide has stopped. In reality, the carnage has merely shifted tactics. Since the implementation of the fragile ceasefire on Oct. 10, Israel has killed over 400 Palestinians and wounded hundreds more. Others have perished in the frozen mud of their tents. They include infants such as Fahar Abu Jazar, who, like others, froze to death. These are not mere tragedies; they are the inevitable results of a calculated Israeli policy of destruction targeting the most vulnerable.
