Israel has no policy of genocide or starvation, bombshell report finds
A new report offers the most compelling debunking yet of the common accusation that Israel is committing genocide in Gaza.
The 311 page study by the Begin-Sadat Centre for Strategic Studies (BESA), an independent nonpartisan Israeli think-tank, bases its findings on statistical facts rather than opinions via a forensic examination of IDF tactics, casualty figures, food truck deliveries and UN reports.
It argues convincingly that there is no evidence to suggest a systematic Israeli policy of targeting or massacring civilians and no evidence that aerial bombing was a part of a genocidal policy of killing innocent Palestinians.
The authors studied the amounts of IDF armaments used and patterns of bombings taking into account the Hamas policy of using Palestinians as human shields and the IDF warnings given prior to most attacks. On the ground it finds that, in sharp contrast to historical examples of genocide in other conflicts, there is no credible forensic evidence to substantiate claims of close-range mass killings of civilians or executions of helpless non-combatants in Gaza which would be a part of any genocide.
The strength of this report and what gives it more credibility than previous reports on the subject is that it is not a pro-Israeli or a pro-Palestinian whitewash. It does not seek to diminish or ignore the severe human suffering in Gaza, nor does it seek to downplay the rhetoric or policy failures of the Israeli government.
Indeed, it accepts that the IDF has at times committed war crimes and unjustified killings in Gaza but says the overwhelming weight of evidence indicates that these examples are ‘outliers’ and not part of any sanctioned policy.
“There is no evidence to suggest a systematic Israeli policy of targeting or massacring civilians,’ the report “Debunking the Genocide Allegations: A Re-examination of the Israel-Hamas War,’ states.
“Throughout our research, we have reviewed forensic evidence that may indicate war crimes committed by individual IDF soldiers. However, those who accuse Israel of genocide erroneously suggest that most civilian casualties in Gaza were entirely unjustified from a military standpoint, portraying those cases in which deaths do seem unjustified not as outliers but as part of a broader, systematic, and deliberate policy of extermination by the IDF.”
“The small number of instances involving persuasive supportive evidence of intentional killings by military personnel does not support this accusation.”
The 1948 UN Genocide Convention, which was adopted following the mass murder of Jews by Nazi Germany, defines genocide as crimes committed “with intent to destroy, in whole or in part, a national, ethnical, racial or religious group”.
The BESA report also addresses claims that Israel’s bombing campaign in Gaza, especially in the early stages of the conflict, was so indiscriminate that it amounted to genocide.
“We have found no evidence to support claims of deliberate bombing of civilians by the IDF during the war, nor any indication of carpet bombing intended to inflict mass civilian casualties in Gaza,’ the report stated. “While we did identify a significant number of tragic cases where innocent civilians were killed, some of which raise concerns about negligence, lack of caution, or even disregard for human life, it is clear that the IDF has employed numerous protective measures to minimise “collateral damage”.
https://www.theaustralian.com.au/world/israel-has-no-policy-of-genocide-or-starv...
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Gaza: Israel's actions 'consistent with genocide' (Read 4670 times)
