Aryeh Neier, “Is Israel Committing Genocide?”, The New York Review of Books, June 6, 2024.

The author, who has seen much as one of the founders of Human Rights Watch, has long been “sparing” in his application of the term “genocide” to state-committed atrocities over the past several decades. Initially he did not think of Israel’s indiscriminate, even criminal violence against civilians as genocide, because Israel had a clear right to defend itself against the barbarous acts of Hamas.

I am now persuaded that Israel is engaged in genocide against Palestinians in Gaza. What has changed my mind is its sustained policy of obstructing the movement of humanitarian assistance into the territory."

What makes this specific article a good read is that he embeds his brief account of the current war into a broad framework of (1) violent conflicts outside of this one, (2) international discourses and agreements about humanity and law in war, and (3) the development of international humanitarian law. Of the last, he writes,

These efforts, which reflected the growing strength and capacity of the human rights movement, created public awareness of IHL and helped to establish the context in which a conflict such as the war in Gaza is being judged by concerned members of the public worldwide.

Neier ends the piece with the establishment of courts to prosecute war crimes and crimes against international humanitarian law. He very briefly considers their relevance to the war in Gaza. Of course, Netanyahu cares little about international opinion or rules. The prime minister invokes “antisemitism” because it suits his current objectives.

Working against his methods is another fact that world leaders ignore at their own peril, it seems to me. As Neier writes,

I have been engaged in efforts to protect human rights for more than six decades, often in circumstances with exceedingly high stakes. I cannot recall any dispute over rights that aroused greater passions and more debate than that involving the war in Gaza since October 7.

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