Israel committing genocide in Gaza, world’s top scholars on the crime say

Are we allowed to say that Gaza has pretty much been destroyed now? Or are people still going to argue the toss between destroyed and damaged?

What Haaretz is saying:
Israel's 'Real Estate Bonanza' Involves Wiping Gaza Off the Face of the Earth

Beneath Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's usual empty slogans ("total victory"), the true goal of the most horrific war in our history is becoming clear – real estate.

Hundreds of soldiers and tens of thousands of civilians have been killed in the Gaza Strip in order to build housing for police officers, according to the abridged plan proposed by National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir, or to turn all of Gaza into a "real estate bonanza," according to the far-reaching plan proposed by Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich.

On Wednesday, Smotrich unveiled his insane plan and said that negotiations over it with the Trump administration are already underway. This happened at an Urban Renewal Summit sponsored by Merkaz Hanadlan, an umbrella organization for people in the real estate sector – the most suitable possible place to present a plan this idiotic.

And Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has yet to voice any reservations about his finance minister's remarks.

The very fact that this plan is being discussed with the United States, and that a senior cabinet minister has presented it as a "business plan," shows the chasm between the government's official statements about destroying Hamas and getting the hostages back and the economic/colonialist ambitions its members are discussing behind the scenes.

The Gaza Strip is Palestinian The Gaza Strip is Palestinian. It is the place of residence of more than two million human beings who were born there, most of them descendants of Palestinians who were expelled or fled from their villages and lands inside Israel during the War of Independence in 1948.

Any talk of occupying such a densely populated, impoverished strip of land, making it unfit for human habitation and systematically cleansing it of its residents so that Israelis and Americans can reap profits, is criminal talk that has no place in any country in the world.

The fact that here, senior cabinet ministers can say such things freely and openly, and they are not immediately and unambiguously repudiated by the prime minister, shows the moral, political and legal depths to which Israel has sunk under our current nightmare government.

For months, Netanyahu has been trying to erect a smokescreen of empty promises about freeing the hostages and ousting Hamas. At the same time, he has asked the army to raze Gaza to its foundations, with the result that entire cities have been wiped off the face of the earth and entire villages have disappeared.

But on Wednesday, Smotrich revealed the interests hiding behind these actions. Operation Gideon's Chariots – in both its first and second stages, and perhaps someday in a third stage – is a military codename for preparing the ground for Smotrich's "real estate bonanza."

All this merely further clarifies the need to end the war. Even people who were still hesitant or believed the government's lies must now stand up in unison to stop this atrocity with their bodies. No bonanza for anyone will emerge from this war, only horrifying crimes and disasters.

Smotrich, Israel’s Finance Minister, and one of the people Netanyahu has used to keep himself propped in power:

”This thing turns into a real-estate bonanza.
I’m not kidding - it pays off. I’ve started negotiations with the Americans. I say this not just jokingly now, because we paid a lot of money for this war. So we need to make a divide on how we make a percentage on the land marketing later in Gaza. And now, no kidding, we’ve done the demolition phase which is always the first phase of urban renewal.”

That they’ve now completed the ‘demolition stage’ of their ‘real estate bonanza’

Hi, could you tell me what he says please?
I don't have access but am interested 😬

Thanks.

Channel 4 News tonight reported the Israeli government saying the mass displacement of the Palestinians from Gaza City is temporary and for their own good.

Then the Ch 4 news cut to Smotrich with his words letting out the truth of what they are doing. A man sitting with him, apparently rapt, was smiling smugly.

Who is lying? The Israeli government or Smotrich?

22:20 mins in

Seen 'Channel 4 News'? Watch it here on Channel 4:

www.channel4.com/programmes/channel-4-news?cntsrc=social_share_ios_channel_4_news

That man is a criminal.

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c5y59z6rznvo

Sick sick sick sick sick

Have scholars for Israel or scholars for genocide or whatever that hastily put together group who were insisting there was nothing to see in Gaza are called said anything about the UN report?

What is Gaza City being razed to the ground and all the people from there expelled going to achieve that will so change everything for Israel? When they’ve done that they’ll still think they have to do something else. It is as though they are crazed and headless.

It cannot be soon enough. The process will take years. Palestinians are being massacred daily. The suffering inflicted upon these people is unimaginably horrific and it could be stopped now if our governments weren’t so invested in funding it.

Your name is quite fitting! Palestinian children are starving because the IDF blew up the farmlands, shoot people if they try to fish and blocked all food coming into the region. They even bombed aid warehouses. Simple. It is also well documented that children starve faster than adults so there is no great conspiracy on why children are starving faster.

A team of experts have analysed the evidence and concluded that Israel have committed genocide and there is a famine. Several Israeli government officials have expressed a desire to get rid of the Palestinians, have advocated for a blockade on food entering the strip, IDF soldiers have boasted about shooting the Palestinians - there are endless videos of murder, of starvation, of dehumanising the population. The IDF did this while the majority of Israeli citizens did not protest (though there were some brilliant courageous citizens who did). It was the IDF and the Israeli government who committed these war crimes and hopefully we will see them behind bars soon.

They spent almost 2 years investigating what is happening in Gaza so I would say that they have a better idea than most what is happening there.

When the commission previously concluded that Hamas and other Palestinian armed groups committed war crimes and other grave violations of international law on 7 October 2023 nobody doubted their credentials.

I think when all major NGOs and the UN conclude that Israel are committing genocide there is a pretty good chance that they are right and we should listen to them.

This might be true, but the UN are so partial you just can't believe anything they say.

At the end of the day the UN have been clear on this. The starving children are starving because of Israel. Israel are responsible for Israels actions, they have chosen to starve children as part of their genocidal campaign whether or not they will pay a price for their atrocities remains to be seen.

"The responsibility for these atrocity crimes lies with the Israeli authorities at the highest echelons," said Navi Pillay, the chair of the commission.

The children are being starved - while Hamas soldiers aren't? And Hamas leaders are being well fed in Qatar?

Kind of - they made an agreement with Israel to let X amount into Gaza a year. And the US asked Qatar to house Hamas politicians to aid diplomacy talks. Israel, the US and Qatar agreed on all of these things so Qatar shouldn’t necessarily be seen as the ‘enemy’.

Just hideous to read. I’m so disgusted by Israel.

Turkey is quite supportive too. Lots of hamas real estate in Turkey according to Panorama.
Qatar also fund a lot of higher education in 'the west'. Of course there are many advocates on this board that use their buying power politically, they don't have quite as much as Qatar though.

Hasn't Qarar been funding Hamas for years? The money for those huge tunnels had to come from somewhere.

We are complicit in that our government is licensing arms to Israel, our publicly funded universities actively engage in R&D which benefits Israel, and our publicly funded public services are complying with communications and security sharing with Israel. In fact the university I teach in is actively involved in developing communications tech sponsored by companies such as BAE systems.

Parts for military jets, radars, communications, small ammunitions, armoured vehicles, technology used for precision and drones. All licenced by the UK for the benefit of Israel, despite these being used to commit war crimes.

So when your taxes are being spent on illegal acts of war you do not have the right to kick up a fuss?

And Israel has for a long time established itself as a place of western values in the Middle East, with liberal values and ‘friendly place for LGBT’, membership of OECD, western media engagement, close US and EU relationships, positioning itself as ‘a bastion of democracy and freedom amongst the chaos of the middle east’ etc etc. So its exceptionalism is Western, because it is perceived as such.

There is new data coming out all the time as numbers of deaths are being realised. It is an abomination. Let journalists in!