The executive director of Israeli human rights organisation B'Tselem has issued a powerful warning that accountability for what she describes as genocide in Gaza is essential to prevent future violence, arguing that without fundamental change, the cycle of destruction will inevitably repeat.
The Illusion of Calm
According to Yuli Novak, a deceptive calm has settled over Israel since the Gaza ceasefire was declared. While sirens have stopped and hostages have returned home, this peace remains fragile and incomplete. More than 200 Palestinian civilians have been killed since the ceasefire supposedly took effect, with no genuine resolution addressing the root causes of the conflict.
Novak describes the current situation as merely a mirage, built around an unclear plan by Donald Trump that fails to challenge the underlying violent political system governing both Palestinians and Israelis. The machinery behind the violence remains fully intact, with the logic of domination continuing to rule unchallenged.
A Textbook Definition of Genocide
B'Tselem's report from last July, titled Our Genocide, presents chilling evidence that Israel's campaign in Gaza meets the clearest definition of genocide. The organisation, comprising both Israeli and Palestinian researchers, documents what they describe as a systematic attempt to destroy the Palestinian population in Gaza through multiple methods including mass killing, deliberate starvation, forced displacement, and the destruction of life-sustaining infrastructure.
The statistics are staggering: over 68,000 people killed, with one third being children and women. This number likely underestimates the true death toll, with tens of thousands more still missing. Hundreds of thousands have been injured, while hospitals and journalists were systematically targeted. The report details children buried alive under rubble and entire familial lines erased from existence.
Israeli officials have openly stated their goal to destroy Gaza and make it uninhabitable, which Novak argues fits the textbook definition of genocide: the deliberate targeting of people specifically because they belong to a group marked for destruction.
Root Causes and International Complicity
The origins of this genocide, according to Novak, predate the 7 October 2023 attacks. The roots lie in decades of Israeli military rule, apartheid systems, impunity, and systematic dehumanisation of Palestinians, all driven by a structure designed to ensure Jewish supremacy over the entire land.
While the 7 October attack was horrifying for every Israeli, including Novak herself, it provided the Israeli system with justification to launch large-scale, coordinated destruction of Palestinian life in Gaza under the banner of self-defence. This represents merely a continuation of more than half a century of military occupation, 15 years of siege and blockade, and repeated military campaigns that have killed thousands of Palestinians.
The international community, particularly the United States and other Western governments, have enabled this situation through their inaction or active support. Novak describes this as the face of 21st-century genocide: not only in its scale and methods, but in how it becomes normalised while governments watch the devastation and say nothing.
The Path Forward: Accountability Not Revenge
Despite the normalisation of violence, Novak finds hope in growing global citizen movements that recognise what's happening and oppose not only the genocide itself but the system that enables it. She identifies this system as an apartheid regime that embraces racism, empowers settler militias, runs torture camps, and carries out daily war crimes.
The cost of normalising this genocide extends far beyond Palestinian victims. When one nation is permitted to erase another without consequence, it sends a dangerous message to future governments that such actions can be committed with impunity.
Novak concludes with an urgent call to action: We must not look away or move on. Those who wish to stand with all people of the land must work to stop this violent, racist regime and hold its leaders accountable. Accountability remains essential not for revenge, but because genuine reckoning cannot occur without responsibility. A system that carries out genocide must not go unchallenged, as this represents the only way to protect both Palestinian and Israeli lives in the long term.
