Like many in Scotland, I have been looking on with horror at what is being done to the Palestinian people by the Israeli forces. It has been described in increasingly grim and grisly terms. Human rights abuses, war crimes, even genocide. But ask yourself, what do you call it when you realise that genocide isn’t a strong enough word to describe what is being done in Gaza?
Genocide is described as “the deliberate and systematic destruction of a national, ethnic, racial or religious group”, and there can be no doubt that this is being enacted in Gaza.
Hospitals have been bombed. When the first hospital was bombed, it was dismissed as either misinformation or an error, rather than a deliberate act by the IDF.
By February of last year, it was reported that every single hospital in Gaza had been attacked and was either damaged, destroyed or out of action because of a lack of fuel. The situation has worsened since then.
According to the charity Medical Aid for Palestinians, the death toll of healthcare workers stood at 1400 in May of this year. This included paramedics being targeted in their ambulances, with 113 ambulances damaged or destroyed by the IDF.
The international charity Doctors Without Borders (Médecins Sans Frontières) has a page on their website paying tribute to all of their volunteers and staff who have gone to help in Palestine and been killed by Israeli forces.
Having effectively disabled the healthcare system in Gaza, at precisely the time it is needed most, Israel has compounded the cruelty of their attacks on Palestinian civilians. Children who have been maimed in their attacks are unable to access the medical treatment that they need.
Tens of thousands of children have been injured, and according to the Guardian, there are now more child amputees in Gaza than anywhere else in the world. That shocking statistic shows starkly the barbarity being enacted daily in Gaza.
Even if all of the above were the extent of it, it would be horrific and sufficient for arrest warrants to be issued worldwide against the perpetrators. The fact that many Palestinians are now on the very edge of starvation and may die in a matter of days compounds the horror.
Israel, of all the countries in the world, is talking about creating concentration camps to detain the remaining Palestinians, but the real question may become “how many will be left for them to hold?”
In recent days, the IDF has massacred civilians approaching aid convoys, desperate for food. Make no mistake, by this point, the Palestinian people are very wary of being anywhere near the IDF, so to approach a food convoy while in their presence shows just how desperate things have been allowed to become.
There has been a crisis of malnutrition, as well as of starvation. The United Nations estimates that 1.9 million people in Gaza have been displaced, 90% of the entire population. That is like a third of Scotland being suddenly uprooted from their homes and unable to access the food they need to survive.
The BBC noted today that a baby and ten others had died from malnutrition and starvation, and they are sure to be the first of many to succumb. Starvation has become an existential threat to the Palestinian people, and it is one that is being enforced by the IDF, in the face of widespread and growing international condemnation.
The people of Palestine have been failed by the international community. People dying of starvation that could have been so easily prevented should shame the UK and US governments, which have provided intel and arms to the Netanyahu regime, despite the wishes of many of their citizens.
When there is such a concerted effort to kill an entire population, genocide no longer seems like a strong enough word. It increasingly feels like Israel sees the Palestinians as a pest to be exterminated by any means necessary.
Nadia El-Nakla, a prominent Palestinian rights campaigner, SNP Councillor, and wife of former First Minister Humza Yousaf, shared her view:
“The word genocide no longer captures the scale of ethnic cleansing being inflicted on the Palestinian people. As a Scottish Palestinian, I find it increasingly difficult to speak publicly about the indiscriminate bombings, the targeted shootings of children, and the deliberate starvation of two million people.
“There are no words left. I’ve used them all—and it hasn’t stopped. No one is coming to save them. No country is stepping up. or stepping in. No sanctions on Israel. Nothing. If the images and videos cannot stop the nightmare Gazans are living through, then what words possibly can?”
Western Governments need to take action to protect the Palestinians before it is too late. It already is for many thousands, but lives can still be saved if there is a determined intervention now to provide aid and safety to those who remain. Stop the attempted genocide from becoming a complete annihilation. We owe it to the Palestinians and to the future of the world.
Steven Marwick is a freelance content writer based in Scotland. If you enjoy his work, he is available to hire on the Upwork freelancer portal. Alternatively, you can buy him a coffee on Ko-fi.
Comments Closed