On October 7, the terrorist organization Hamas attacked Israel. The attack led to a massive operation by the Israeli armed forces in Gaza, a Palestinian territory controlled by Hamas.
The fighting has claimed the lives of more than 19,000 people in a short time, and Israel has forced the majority of the population of Gaza to leave their homes.
Some human rights organizations and Palestinian organizations believe that Israel is guilty of genocide and that its leadership should therefore be prosecuted by the International War Crimes Court at the ICC.
Three Palestinian human rights organizations filed a complaint petition to the ICC in early November. In addition, some individuals living in Gaza and the United States, together with human rights organizations, have raised a case against the American leadership charge, because the United States, according to the prosecutors, did not prevent genocide.
The key act is the UN Convention
Genocide is stipulated in the resolution adopted by the UN in 1946, on the basis of which it was prepared “Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Mass Destruction”. In Finnish law, the term “genocide” is not used, but the title is “mass destruction”.
In the outdated text of the Convention, mass destruction is defined as “an act aimed at the extermination of a national, ethnic, racial or religious group in this capacity, either in whole or in part”.
According to the UN definition, mass destruction can be killing members of a group or causing severe physical or mental injury to members of a group. It can also be the deliberate deterioration of the group’s living conditions with the aim of bringing about its physical destruction either in whole or in part. In addition, mass extermination can be the implementation of measures aimed at preventing births within a group or the forced transfer of children from one group to another.
The essential point: what is the author’s intention?
According to experts, the key factor in genocide accusations is the intent of the perpetrator. Is it Israel’s intention to exterminate a certain part of the population of Gaza, in part or in whole?
It is often difficult to verify the actual motive of a state or organization suspected of genocide.
There are also clear cases. For example, Nazi Germany was guilty of genocide when they murdered the Jews in the territories they occupied and sought to destroy all Jews. On the other hand, the Allies did not commit genocide in the mass bombing of Dresden at the end of World War II in Germany, because their purpose was not to exterminate an entire ethnic group. In Rwanda in 1994, members of the Hutu tribe committed genocide when they killed 800,000 members of the Tutsi tribe and moderate Hutus.
Emeritus Professor of International Law Martti Koskenniemi notes that there is technically no genocide going on in Gaza. According to him, it cannot be said, or at least shown, that Israel’s motive is the complete extermination of the ethnic group.
Even the human rights organization Amnesty International has so far not come to the conclusion that the bombings in Gaza are a matter of genocide. Amnesty states that it has no evidence of Israel’s specific intent to exterminate a group of people. Amnesty reminds that it is constantly gathering information about the events in Gaza, and its position on the issue may change.
The Israeli president has been brought up in Palestinian circles by Isaac Herzog in October speech given in which he accused all Palestinians of allowing Hamas to operate.
– The whole nation there is to blame. A speech that the civilians wouldn’t have known [Hamasin teoista] or were involved, is not true, Herzog said.
According to him, the Palestinians could have made a revolution against Hamas and prevented its atrocities in Israel.
Israel has also been suspected intending to forcibly transfer the entire population of Gaza to Egypt.
Other crimes
Both Martti Koskenniemi and Amnesty consider it possible that Israel’s actions meet the hallmarks of other war crimes or crimes against humanity.
For years, Amnesty has been accusing Israel of apartheid policy, i.e. policy of racial separation, towards the Palestinians. In both this and previous wars, Israel has bombed areas inhabited by civilians indiscriminately and prevented humanitarian aid. Gaza has been under siege for years.
The Hamas organization, on the other hand, can be held guilty of killing civilians and illegally abducting them as hostages.
Amnesty reminds that there is no hierarchy between violations of international law. Genocide, crimes against humanity and war crimes are all acts that must be condemned and that the international community should strive to prevent.
More on the topic:
Time: Is What’s Happening in Gaza a Genocide? Experts Weigh In