Database exposes 500 instances of Israeli incitement to genocide in Gaza

A non-profit human rights organisation has revealed a shocking evidence of over 500 instances of Israeli officials advocating for genocide against Palestinians in besieged Gaza.

"Our documentation encompasses over 500 incitements of violence and genocidal incitement, appearing in the forms of social media posts, television interviews, and official statements from Israeli politicians, army personnel, journalists, and other influential personalities," the Europe-based Law for Palestine said on Thursday.

"These reprehensible incitements have been categorised into significant thematic areas, including genocidal intent, forced displacement, and collective punishment," the NGO said.

What's truly unsettling is that this evidence comes straight from the top, said the NGO, adding it emanated from the upper echelons of the Israeli government, "including the president, prime minister, Knesset members, military personnel, and law enforcement."

Genocide and ethnic cleansing talk

Some of those calls for genocide and ethnic cleansing against Palestinians came from Israeli decision-makers, including President Isaac Herzog, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, and other extremist ministers in the far-right government.

"There are no innocent civilians in Gaza," Herzog said on October 14.

On November 11, Defence Minister Yoav Gallant threatened genocide against both Palestinians and Lebanese people by saying: "I am saying here to the citizens of Lebanon, I already see the citizens in Gaza walking with white flags along the coast... If Hezbollah makes mistakes of this kind, the ones who will pay the price are, first of all, the citizens of Lebanon. What we are doing in Gaza, we know how to do in Beirut."

In some instances, Netanyahu directly called for the mass killings of the Palestinians in besieged Gaza.

In others, he used religious references to dehumanise the Palestinians, a tactic often used by fascists throughout history in order to make it easier for the people to accept the massacres being carried out against opponents.

"Gaza is the city of evil, we will turn all the places in which Hamas deploys and hides into ruins. I am telling the people of Gaza — get out of there now. We will act everywhere and with full power," Netanyahu said on October 13.

"You must remember what Amalek has done to you, says our Holy Bible," he said on October 28. Netanyahu continued: "We remember, and we are fighting … our soldiers are part of a legacy of Jewish warriors that goes back 3,000 years."

Israeli military soldiers, too, have also been caught showing genocidal intent and collective punishment ambitions in Gaza.

An example of that was an image taken by an IDF soldier of an artillery shell that had a text written on it in Hebrew: "God Willing, it will hit innocent people."

"One of the options is to drop an atomic bomb on Gaza. I pray & hope for their [hostages] return, but there is also a price in war," Amichai Eliyahu, Israeli Minister of Heritage, wrote on X.

"Those are animals, they have no right to exist. I am not debating they way it will happen, but they need to be exterminated," argued Yoav Kisch, Israeli Minister of Education.

"Bring down buildings!! Bomb without distinction!! Stop with this impotence. You have ability. There is worldwide legitimacy! Flatten Gaza. Without mercy! This time, there is no room for mercy!," wished Revital Gottlieb, a member of the Israeli Knesset.

"If all of Gaza are refugees, then let's scatter them in the world. There are 2.5m people there, each country would take in 20K people, 100 countries, it is humane, it is required," suggested Ram Ben Barak, member of the Israeli Knesset.

Extremist Israeli Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich and National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir also have been continuously calling for expulsion of Palestinians from Gaza, reoccupation of the enclave, and the construction of illegal Jewish settlements there.

Israel has killed at least 22,438 Palestinians — mostly children and women — and wounded 57,614 in its brutal war on the blockaded enclave so far. Some 7,000 Palestinians are feared buried under the rubble of the annihilated buildings. More than half of Gaza's infrastructure is destroyed or severely damaged. Israeli indiscriminate bombardment has uprooted some 90 percent of Gaza's 2.3 million people.

US, Israel's ally, says it doesn’t see genocide of Palestinians in Gaza, and has lashed out at South Africa, which has launched a case at the United Nations' top court saying that Israel's military invasion in Gaza amounts to genocide.

What exactly is genocide?

Genocide was first recognised as a crime under international law in 1946 by the United Nations General Assembly.

The term genocide was first coined by the Polish lawyer Raphael Lemkin, which initially meant killing. Ironically, the formation of the term was in response to the Nazi genocide against Jews in Europe.

According to Article II of the UN’s Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide, genocide acts are:

— Intent to destroy, in whole or in part, a national, ethnical, racial or religious group, including killing members of the group

— Causing serious bodily or mental harm to members of the group

— Deliberately inflicting on the group conditions of life calculated to bring about its physical destruction in whole or in part

— Imposing measures intended to prevent births within the group; and forcibly transferring children of the group to another group.