Evidence of Israel's genocidal intentions toward Gaza?

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In 2010 Frank Johansson, the chairman of Amnesty International-Finland, called Israel a nilkkimaa a derogetory term variously translated as "scum state", "creep state" or "punk state Johansson stood by his statement, saying that it was based on Israel's "repeated flouting of international law", and his own personal experiences with Israelis. When asked by a journalist if any other country on earth that could be described in these terms, he said that he could not think of any, although some individual "Russian officials" could be so described.

In November 2012, Amnesty UK began a disciplinary process against staffer Kristyan Benedict, Amnesty UK campaigns manager, because of a posting on his Twitter account, said to be anti-semitic, regarding three Jewish members of parliament and Operation Pillar of Defense where he wrote: "Louise Ellman, Robert Halfon and Luciana Berger walk into a bar ... each orders a round of B52s ... #Gaza". Amnesty International UK said "the matter has been referred to our internal and confidential processes." Amnesty's campaigns director Tim Hancock said, "We do not believe that humour is appropriate in the current circumstances, particularly from our own members of staff." An Amnesty International UK spokesperson later said the charity had decided that "the tweet in question was ill-advised and had the potential to be offensive and inflammatory but was not racist or antisemitic."

In November 2016, Amnesty International conducted a second internal investigation of Benedict for comparing Israel to the Islamic state.

In April 2021, Amnesty International distanced itself from a tweet written in 2013 by its new Secretary General, Agnès Callamard, which read: ""NYT Interview of Shimon Perres [sic] where he admits that Yasser Arafat was murdered"; Amnesty responded by saying: "The tweet was written in haste and is incorrect. It does not reflect the position of Amnesty International or Agnès Callamard." Callamard herself has not deleted the tweet.

On 11 March 2022, Paul O'Brien, the Amnesty International USA Director, stated at a private event: "We are opposed to the idea — and this, I think, is an existential part of the debate — that Israel should be preserved as a state for the Jewish people", while adding "Amnesty takes no political views on any question, including the right of the State of Israel to survive." He also rejected a poll that found 8 in 10 American Jews were pro-Israel, saying: "I believe my gut tells me that what Jewish people in this country want is to know that there's a sanctuary that is a safe and sustainable place that the Jews, the Jewish people can call home."

So they are trying to commit genocide by providing humanitarian aid to the Gazans and vaccinating them against diseases?

Sometimes this aid has been allowed into Gaza, and sometimes it hasn't been allowed.

I've seen plenty of news stories about aid not being allowed into Gaza. For example, from OxFam, September 18, 2024: Israel’s siege now blocks 83% of food aid reaching Gaza, new data reveals. So lt looks like some humanitarian aid is getting through, but not nearly as much as is needed.

In at least some cases, humanitarian aid trucks have been blocked by Israeli civilians. See Israeli blockade of aid delivery to the Gaza Strip (Wikipedia).


As I see it, the point of allowing at least a token amount of such aid is to retain plausible deniability. If Israel were too blatantly genocidal, it would be in much more danger of losing U.S. support. The U.S.A. gives much more foreign aid, both military and economic, to Israel than to any other country in the world. Israel doesn't want to lose this support, hence needs to look good in the eyes of the U.S.A.

And, apparently, if even the tiniest slightest little bit of humanitarian aid manages to get through, that would be enough to give Israel plausible deniability in the eyes of people (like yourself, and like many Americans) who are already strongly biased in favor of Israel.

The funny thing is that my inclination is not to support Israel because I still blame them for their attack on the USS Liberty. For years, I criticized nearly everything that Israel did.

Then there is also their treatment of Christians in the area.

I am certainly not heavy biased toward Israel. In general, I tolerate them, but only because of their self defense from terrorists who would happily murder most or all of the Jews there.

That said, it is clear that in this case, Hamas is to blame for the attacks that brought all this on. They started this war and it really doesn't bother me if Israel finishes it. Hamas brought it upon themselves.

I've copied and quoted the above here, in the thread Historical context of Israel's war on Gaza, for topicality reasons. Everyone, if you respond to the above -- especially regarding kokopelli's stated feelings about Israel generally, apart from the current war -- please do so in that other thread.

You claim that I am biased and then "move" the topic elsewhere while removing your nonsensical claims?

Sheesh!

^^^ "IDF said"

It seems like the big argument here that Israel is genocidal toward Hamas is centered around the fact that Israel is so much more powerful that they could have done something entirely different.

That sounds like the crazy arguments we hear after police shootings that the police didn't have to kill the criminal -- that they should have aimed for the foot, the leg, the arm, or something else nonlethal. Their argument is nonsense. You shoot for the center of mass and stop the murderous rampage as soon as possible.

Here we see the same type of thing, just on a bigger scale. Hamas launched a very violent terrorist attack against civilians. They started all this. It is incumbent on the Israelis to bring the situation under control. Hamas is certainly never going to bring it under control -- they will keep up the terrorism as long as they can. Israel must act responsibly and stop them at all costs for the safety of their citizens. The last thing they want is to allow the terrorists to continue terrorizing their country.