We Lost Ourselves in Gaza

Dearest Reader,

In the past week a noticable turning point has been met: The West has been forced to acknowledge the global consensus that Isreal is committing genocide in Gaza. The catalyst was likely a simple photo of a devoted, malnourished mother and her child, as well as the startled expression of that hungry baby. On Monday, in an urgent and courageous move, two Israeli human rights organizations, B’Tselem and Physicians for Human Rights-Israel, filed meticulous reports (here and here) concluding that Israel, their homeland, is committing genocide in Gaza against an unarmed civillian population. I have written quite a bit about this so-called war over the past two years. We all know that gruesome war crimes were evident on October 7th worthy of swift legal action, but few countenanced the unfathomable tyranny, war crimes and inhumanity flouting international law across Palestine that would follow.

My first piece “Reflections on The Rwandan Genocide as South Africa Takes Israel to Court” from January 2024 captures my sorrow for Palestinians under bombardment, compassion for Israelis reeling from the attacks on October 7, 2023 and my absolute horror at the Israeli military response. I really have no idea how Israel can recover from this calamity politically or diplomatically. Even as famine takes hold, the current government is claiming there is no starvation in Gaza. A dissociative nation that David Remnick references as “Israel’s Zones of Denial” in a New Yorker op-ed this week exploring the cognitive dissonance of a genocidal nation. Zones of denial. It must be nice to have that option.

Another well researched piece I wrote about the war on Gaza in October 2024 is called “They Shoot Journalists Don’t They?: Israel’s War on (Press) Freedom” In it I document many accounts of the Israeli military killing and allegedly executing over one hundred journalists:

“According to an October 4th report from the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) at least 128 journalists have been killed since the start of the war in Gaza beginning October 2023 and all but five have been Palestinian. To put that in perspective, a staggering 75% of journalists killed in 2023 died in Gaza. In fact, the next deadliest year on record is 2006 where 56 journalists were killed in Iraq.”

Since 2023, Gaza has been the most dangerous place on earth for journalists—at least 164 journalists have been killed or allegedly assassinated. This year alone, approximately 23 journalists have been killed by Israeli forces in Gaza. Officially, as of July 29th, some 60,034 civilians (including over 17,000 children) have been killed and 145,870 wounded in Gaza, but a full accounting of the true death or injury toll is lacking. In July 2024 Lancet Medical Journal posited as many as 186,000 Gazan deaths may be the correct total at that time, accounting for not just direct deaths, but indirect deaths, as well. I fear between the growing famine that has 20,000 children treated by the failing hospital system for acute malnutrition since April 2025 with at least 16 deaths of children under five-years-old as reported by the U.N., extrajudicial killings of some 1,320 Palestinians with more than 8,818 injured by freakshow Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF) led by Israel and the U.S., relentless bombings that literally changed the landscape and other shooting deaths that based on the Lancet’s predictive outcome could be as many as 300-400,000 people murdered at this point.

As I said in my newsletter comparing my exposure to the Rwandan genocide as a young child in Kenya compared to the genocide in Gaza:

“Within days [of October 7th] the war drums were beating in the West with a predictable rhythm and tone that conjured my own memories of America after 9/11—a bad omen. What would follow has upended our global understanding of human rights, international law, the impenetrability of Israeli intelligence and Western moral authority.”

Furthermore, these deaths are among the cruelest ends imaginable for children, women, men and the elderly. And the number of injured, permanently disabled and/or amputees in the hundreds of thousands. Gaza now has the most child amputees in the world.

It’s shameful that the images of numerous malnourished and dying children have to come across our phones, for the stigma of calling war crimes, war crimes to break through the mainstream and press. The thing about genocide is that we have laws to prevent it, including the Convention on the Preventon and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide ratified in 1951 which virtually NO Western nations have full-throatedly upheld while nations of the Global South have picked up the slack. In fact for Germany, a staunch ally of Israel, this is their fourth genocide—beginning with Namibia, Armenia, the European Holocaust and now the Gaza genocide. The U.S. has a solid record of genocide and facilitating mass murder itself so we can add Gaza to the list. I suppose genocide is the price of doing business in the West? However, international law should not play favorites, so eventually responsible individuals in the entirety of this conflict, from Israel, Palestine and I suspect many more countries will have their just day in court for their crimes. My hope is the widespread documentation of this genocide will create a massive dragnet for justice according to the law.

That is my hope anyway, despite the numerous violations of international law and international humanitarian law (laws of war) conducted by Israel and the U.S. that many scholars/analysts worry could upend the international legal system. Ironically it was WWII and The Holocaust that murdered some six million innocent Jewish people that laid that groundwork for international law, laws of war and The Genocide Convention, in particular. Now, some of those descendant of WWII’s terrifying Holocaust, many residing in Israel, are wilfully conducting or supporting a genocide all their own against a near defenseless population—the staggeringly resilient people of Palestine. It should, of course, be recognized and celebrated that many protesting for a ceasefire across the world are of Jewish descent. Nevertheless, in Israel, according to a June 5th article in Israeli publication Haaretz:

“82 percent of Israeli Jews support ‘the transfer (expulsion) of residents of the Gaza Strip to other countries?’ No less than 54 percent of Jewish respondents were ‘very’ supportive. [And] when asked directly whether they agreed with the position that the IDF, ‘when conquering an enemy city, should act in a manner similar to the way the Israelites acted when they conquered Jericho under the leadership of Joshua, namely, to kill all its inhabitants?’ nearly half, 47 percent, agreed.”

In July at a meeting in Colombia of 30 countries called The Hague Group, co-chaired by South Africa who brought the landmark case against Israel for the crime of genocide in December 2023 to the International Court of Justice (ICJ), these nations met to effectuate coordinated pressure on Israel to stop the genocide. Most of these nations are in the Global South—the world outside of Europe and North America. They agreed on several measures that they aim to “restrain Israel’s assault on the Occupied Palestinian Territories.” As detailed in Al Jazeera:

“[The Hague Group] has set itself the mission of upholding international law, and safeguarding the principles set out in the Charter of the United Nations, principally ‘the responsibility of all nations to uphold the inalienable rights, including the right to self-determination, that it enshrines for all peoples’ ”

Just before this conference of morally clear nations, U.N. Special Rapporteur Francesca Albanese, who has been a tireless champion of international law and advocate against the miserable circumstances of the Palestinian people, was hit with sanctions by the United States. This marks the latest sign of bullying and desperation to cover up this ongoing crime.

America has already moved to sanction the International Criminal Court (ICC), four ICC judges and unnamed Palestinian officials over ICJ and ICC cases. The ICC is the highest court that can criminally prosecute individuals responsible for grave crimes concerning the international community and the ICJ founded in1945 and known as the “World Court,” serves as the principal judicial body of the United Nations. In the midst of all this no Arab nations have cut ties or implemented strategic sanctions against Israel. A game is certainly being played with Palestinian lives in such a cynical manner that it begs the question, will we have any humanity left once this war is supposedly won? Western and Arab nation leaders are certainly looking scandalous. Gratefully, I sense the majority of global citizens, despite their leadership, feel deep compassion for Palestinians. In fact a recent Pew poll in the U.S. found 60% of respondents disapprove of Israel’s military actions in Gaza with 92% of Democrats, 75% of independents against these actions and inversely 71% of Republlicans continue to support the genocide.

God bless all the suffering people of Palestine, Gazans desperate for nourishment and a moment’s peace (the long-term mental health crisis is going to be unimaginable) and countrymen in the West Bank or East Jerusalem contending with indiscriminate violence. In recent days, France declared plans to recognize a Palestinian state in September at the U.N. General Assembly whereas the U.K. pledged the same unless Israel can wrestle up a ceasefire, and Canada pledged recognition of Palestinian state with conditions regarding the Palestinian Authority (PA). Western nations like Ireland, Spain, Norway and Sweden have already done so.

This long overdue gesture, may well happen, but I think it betrays the insanity of the situation more than any solutions. Also this week, a hastily put together U.N. conference led by France and Saudi Arabia launched what is being referred to as “The New York Declaration” calling for an end to the conflict and a two-state solution. The United States and Israel boycotted the event. To be honest, this declaration has a lot of clunky neo-colonial ideas like having the cowed and unpopular PA take over control of the entirety of Palestine and establish a challenging to realize two-state solution in an apartheid state—Israel has stolen an enormous volume of Palestinian land beyond the agreed upon 1967 borders. Plus The U.S. just placed sanctions on the PA in an obvious attempt to hobble the forward momentum in global recognition of a Palestinian State. Also this week, hundreds of religious zealot settlers from the West Bank have set out on a pilgrimage to colonize parts of Northern Gaza. If little changes or somehow the can is kicked down the road, God (whichever you prefer) help us all.

This madness began with the justifiable Israeli fear and anger following October 7th attacks by Hamas to evolve into the crime of crimes—genocide— against Palestinian civilians which by law, is legally indefensible no matter the catalyzing event. Furthermore, the Genocide Convention is about prevention so the mear impression of such a crime is enough to intervene—but no one did except for the Houthis of Yemen and then America alongside Israel bombed all of Yemen for it, sparking concerns of famine there, as well. And how those responsible will be prosecuted is a math equation so large, I don’t really even know how we will add up all the voluminous numbers of criminals and the dead. But it’s my solemn hope that a fair accounting of the crimes in this war, however horrific or painful, be a path to better understand our interconnected humanity. My God, we have to face this head on or else I fear for our future in this century as either a world of gleeful child killers or a world of undeterred, loving, justice seekers.

Ceasefire. Now.

With Love During End Times,

Agunda

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