All Israelis must ask themselves: Is it legitimate to kill 100,000 Gazans?

Central Gaza, April 2024

Ofri Ilany writes in Haaretz on 13 April 2024:

No few Israelis have of late developed an awareness of the climate crisis and the dangers it poses for human life on Earth. We have learned that within a few decades, or perhaps in a few years, global warming is liable to cause mass famine and epidemics, and to render regions of the planet uninhabitable. Many concerned people have changed their habits in an effort to curb destructive environmental phenomena, even though they know that it will be the coming generations that will bear the brunt of the damage.

Yet, at this very moment, hunger that is steadily becoming more acute is just a few kilometers away from us, in the Gaza Strip. This is not a future catastrophe; it’s happening now, right here. And this is not due to excessive gas emissions generated by all of humanity, but to the policies of Israel’s army and government.

Some Israeli officials are trying to refute the evidence and reports about widespread starvation in Gaza, which have been published, among others, by the U.S. State Department. But even these deniers are finding it difficult to deny the existence of steadily worsening hunger in the northern Strip. Not to mention the growing danger of famine emerging on a far vaster scale in the months ahead, spelling the death of tens of thousands more Palestinians. While this situation is not Israel’s fault alone, at the same time, a shift in the country’s policy regarding the entry of food into northern Gaza through the border crossings could bring about an improvement and avert an unimaginable catastrophe.

Moreover, although ending the war and setting Gaza’s rehabilitation in motion are necessary conditions for avoiding the impending disaster, it seems as if public opinion in Israel has become fixated on pursuing an unlimited war. The humanitarian disaster in the Strip has riveted the attention of the entire world – especially since the debacle involving the fatal attack on World Central Kitchen aid workers – but the headlines in local media still focus mostly on domestic issues, such as the crisis involving recruitment of the ultra-Orthodox into the army and the turmoil in the coalition. What is the explanation for this?

Multiple voices in world public opinion are portraying Israeli society as monstrous and murderous. Such demonization is not helpful. Many of those who advocate continuing the war in its present form are neither sadistic nor bloodthirsty. They even present rational grounds for their approach that meet the standards of reasonable logic: Israel was brutally attacked in its sovereign territory on October 7; Hamas has declared its wish to continue perpetrating similar attacks until the state is annihilated; Hamas is making manipulative use of the war’s victims in Gaza to isolate Israel internationally; a Hamas victory will make life in the area abutting Gaza Strip, and perhaps in other border zones as well, untenable.

Clearly, a great deal is hanging in the balance. But Israel’s current policy is leading to a catastrophe of horrific proportions – a calamity of previously unknown dimensions. Tens of thousands of wounded Palestinians are not receiving medical care. Even if the scenarios of 100,000 dead are not realized, everything possible must be prevent them from being realized.

And in the meantime, as though the horror is not overwhelming enough, there is talk of conquering Rafah – in other words, laying waste to the last area in the Strip that has not yet been completely destroyed. The conquest, we are told, must be achieved to eliminate Hamas’ remaining battalions.

In the end, though, the question to be asked is how many Palestinian civilians is it okay to kill in order to achieve the war’s goals. Those who declare that it’s essential to continue until “victory” is attained will have to come up with a response: Do they think it’s legitimate for 100,000 people to perish? Or even more? In practice, anyone who thinks that numbers of victims like that are legitimate, is effectively espousing support for genocide.

Although the logic of pursuing the war may be rational, such thinking also leads to a dismal, tragic existential approach. There are those who say, “Yes, an atrocity is being perpetrated in Gaza, but nothing can be done about it.” Some go further, suggesting, fatalistically, that “the international community will ostracize us, we will lose the support of the United States, but we will fight to the bitter end.” This mentality evokes the Great Jewish Revolt – against the Romans – which brought untold disasters down upon the Jewish people.

Being worthy of compassion

For years it was possible to claim that the international community was obsessive about Israel, due to extraneous biases. Indeed, that claim was probably valid in some cases. But what is happening here now is truly one of the greatest disasters of this century. To be shocked and outraged by the catastrophe now unfolding in Gaza is not a matter of obsession – you open your eyes and you see it.

On October 7 and in the months that followed, many of us were appalled by the indifference and complacency people all over the world displayed when hearing of the atrocities Hamas perpetrated in the communities bordering Gaza. How is it possible to deny human suffering so callously, we asked. But now, many in Israel are showing the same sort of indifference to the death of tens of thousands of children, women, men and the elderly in the Strip. True, they are not being murdered deliberately, but the number of victims is liable to be greater by two orders of magnitude than the number of victims of the massacre six months ago.

To be worthy of the compassion and solidarity we expected on October 7, we must do everything to stop the horror in the Gaza Strip. If we declare that we are not subject to international conventions relating to warfare, no one will have any reason to pity us the next time we are attacked.

It’s still possible to save tens of thousands of people, who may die if the war continues. For that reason alone, the war must stop. The United Nations Security Council has already started to work to that end. What else needs to happen?

This article is reproduced in its entirety